Cedar's Garden 2015

[Cedar]

Photos tomorrow....

The 100'x30' greenhouse got tilled for planting on Thursday night. One duck snuck through the fence and darn near became fertilizer as it went under the tractor and was not even an inch from being mincemeat from the tiller tines. So the two drakes I was saving for dinner (oxymoron there hey?), got tossed out of the greenhouse complex, and now have 2 fences between them and this particular greenhouse. I put three alpacas in the greenhouse complex to mow, as the geese are not keeping up with it, are only mowing the 'front end' and not down closer to the river end. I am hoping that when the 48'x20' greenhouse is planted and the sides rolled up, they will not squeeze their way in there. The alpacas do not respect hot fence, so there are limited places I can currently put them.

The 10'x20' structure for the aquaponic project is up. Z and SP did that on Wednesday when I was at Farmer's Market. It still needs some leveling and then to be skinned with whatever we are skinning it with. Both the tanks are currently here, but not in the greenhouse complex yet. Z ordered a whole bunch of books on aquaculture, so I guess he is taking over that project. My friend from Wisconsin is coming for 10 or so days on Monday, and he is helping us set up the lumbermill. With the lumbermill, we will be able to get many more of our projects accomplished. Including the two additions for the North Barn. One of which is the turkey breeding facilities, the quail rearing area, and the hopefully last version of pig facilities (I think I have Z talked into doing it my way this time). Why does this tie into the garden? ROOF SPACE! Water catchment from the North Barn, will be caught into large tanks and gravity fed to another tank to water the greenhouses and aquaculture systems. 2,500 gallons will be caught with a 1" rain. We have alot of 1" rain days. Two nights ago, it rained 0.80-something just overnight. We get 90-120" of rain here a year at the farm. Any overflow we have will continue its merry little way into the ravine which it has gone into for years, and continue its way to the river.

I woke at 2 am due to Z snoring due to his allergies and SP coughing. So I decided I was really thirsty since I could not sleep, and went downstairs. After not being able to go back to sleep due to other family members, I went into the basement to candle eggs. I kicked out 2 turkey eggs and 2 duck eggs. Not bad out of 5 trays which hold about 36 eggs each. The goose eggs are not far enough along to see if they are fertile or not. I have to hand turn them 4x a day and give them a spritz bath at the same time. They will get hand turned 120x before they hatch. The Royal Palm turkeys are laying two eggs a day for the two hens and the Bourbon Red turkeys are younger than the Royal Palms by a month or so, and the Bourbons are laying 1-3 eggs a day this last week, for all 6 hens. I am still looking for Slates, which are my favorite turkey variety.

Our post office is only open like 2 hours a day, but thankfully on Saturdays, so this morning I finally got my package of Rhubarb in the mail. I am trialing these particular varieties for an elevation of 800', see what grows best in our maritime climate, selecting for deep reds, and tartness of taste will also be tested. For 5 years I will be keeping track and documenting each variety to send back to Washington State University Regional Plant Introduction Station for whom I am trialing these varieties. These were planted inside the 'large unskinned greenhouse'.

I selected four varieties:
"Plum Hutt" from Ontario, Canada
"Crimson Wine", from Washington State
"Cawood Delight", from the United Kingdom
"Valentine", from Ontario Canada

By 9 am I was in town to hand off 2 dozen chicken eggs to a lady who wanted them, and I went to gleaner's to help out, then got home in time that Z did not have to do Farmer's Market. Someone suggested to us to meet at the same time as the mobile library van and have our wares of meat, eggs and honey. So we were there for two hours. I picked up a book on felting and SP picked up 4 children's books.

My fruit tree rootstock order for me and our community came in today and we picked that up. Tomorrow is my Community Grafting Party, after fire practice. Once again I grabbed a salad from the house and then ate it as Z drove. Too often lately I have been cooking something for dinner in 5 minutes and taking it with me to eat at the meeting. I did that three times last week.

Z wanted to go to a U-Pullit for seat belts for the 'new' Farmer's Market truck, but I told him NAPA had lap belts for about the same cost, so he picked up two of those. We also picked up fencing on sale, so we got everything (plus) for the orchard fencing. Hog panels were also on sale, so we picked up a gazillion of those, so I can put in temp fencing myself without Z, to keep the animals away from my grafted trees before the permanent fencing is in, so I can get the 40-some trees in the ground before who-knows-when-we-can-get-the- deer-fencing in. Had a fire call for an out of control slash fire not far from our house in some pretty mountainous area where they had just clear cut, so that was a little exciting as we were still in town and I am calling my neighbors giving them the heads up and see if they can tell me how close it is to our houses and how bad. We were just getting the last of the fencing load on the trailer, and only tossed two straps on, instead of the normal 5 and sped home. About 6 miles from home, I get the text that it has been cancelled, so I called the non-emergency 911 number to confirm. I am glad it was nothing more, but mightly upset people do not check out things better before calling 911. Not one of our crew could even find a wildfire in our area. No smoke. Nothing. It rained 0.8" a couple nights ago and I thought the humidity was a little higher, but right now as I am typing this it is 45% humidity. I went to the fire station as our trucks were returning, to see what the deal was and get the skinny on it.  I am really glad it was nothing, but maybe it gives us a 'trial run' before the real fire season starts.

After unloading all the orchard fencing, I did chores, talked to a neighbor for a few minutes about babysitting if we do have another wildfire, I got 200 feet of transplants of 2 kinds of celery, 5 kinds of lettuce, two kinds of artichokes planted from 5pm-9pm.  Came in to take a shower, cooked dinner, turn the goose eggs, did the last two days of dishes, made some semblance of order to the house that seemed to have exploded in the last two days.

In a few minutes I might just start grafting fruit trees. I forgot how many I need to do for us. I know I have 9 almonds, 3 figs, 1-2 pears and a BUNCH of apples. Maybe 20 of those. After this year, I think I am done planting apples. That will give the farm around 40 apple trees, each one a different variety. I am not sure how many people want to graft their own trees, so I may have quite a few to do for them.

Cedar

[Cedar]

Seedy Saturday Part II - The Grafting Party

The order for rootstock came in on Saturday and Sunday afternoon was the grafting party. I had at least 20 varieties of apples and pears scions to share. I took some whips off a tree I left unpruned this year for practice 'sticks' and had them work on 'whip and tongue' and 'cleft' types of grafts before I turned them loose on the good stuff.



I helped several ladies graft their fruit trees and showing other people how to practice on 'scrap'. I had a demonstration on how to do 'whip and tongue' and 'cleft' grafting and when and where to use each. After practicing on junk wood I took along for the occasion, I turned them loose on their rootstocks and scion wood they selected. It was really fun, there were a couple people who will soon be pro's at grafting. They wanted to pay me for the class, but I told them to go out and teach others. I think one lady had 20 to do of both pears and apples, another had 10 apples, and a few others, 2-4 each.

Grafting is where you take two plants and stick them together n a special way for them to grow. In most cases, one plant is selected for its roots and this is called the stock or rootstock. The other plant is selected for its fruits and is called the scion. The scion contains the desired genes to be duplicated in future production by the stock/scion plant. So, the apple or pear variety is on the top and the rootstock is to determine how tall it will get, disease resistance and other traits.

In whip grafting the scion and the stalk are cut slanting and then joined. The grafted point is then bound with tape and covered with soft wax to prevent dehydration and germs. Also known as the whip and tongue graft, this is considered the most difficult to master but has the highest rate of success as it offers the most cambium contact between the two species.



The stock is cut through on one side only at a shallow angle with a sharp knife. (If the stock is a branch and not the main trunk of the rootstock then the cut surface should face outward from the centre of the tree.) The scion is similarly sliced through at an equal angle starting just below a bud, so that the bud is at the top of the cut and on the other side than the cut face.

A notch is cut downwards into the sliced face of the stock and a similar cut upwards into the face of the scion cut. These act as the tongues and it requires some skill to make the cuts so that the scion and the stock marry up neatly. The joint is then taped around and treated with tree-sealing compound or grafting wax. The elongated "Z" shape adds strength, removing the need for a companion rod in the first season.
In cleft grafting a small cut is made in the stalk and then the pointed end of the scion is inserted in the stalk. The most common form of grafting is cleft grafting. This is best done in the spring and is useful for joining a thin scion about 1 cm diameter to a thicker branch or stock.

This lady had done 20 trees last year and two did not take on the pears, so with the root stock still alive, we put on new scionwood. I suggested she might try two kinds on one, and she cleft grafted two varieties onto one tree.


Cedar

[sshickson]

I want to grow up to be you!!! You are amazing!

[TexasGirl]

That's cool.

I haven't grafted in years.  Dad and I grafted tons of pecan on native hickory 35 years ago.  Whip and tongue worked the best, made the strongest graft over time.  The data is gone now, but certain pecan varieties had a much better success rate.  Dad loved the "Indian" varieties (such as Choctaw).

I need to refresh and do some grafting.

Thanks Cedar!

~TG

[Cedar]

Photos would be pretty boring at the moment, hence why there is none, but finally I started to make a video that Nicodemus asked me to make awhile back ago.

This is the last photo I have of the Small Greenhouse before I got another two lengths of trellis in.... the tomatoes, peppers and eggplants are installed since this was taken on the 9th. There is a total of 384 row feet for tomatoes in here.

SP and I worked on getting the trellises for the tomatoes set up. I had black visqueen down for 5 months on the left side where we put the trellises to kill the foliage in there. I have since moved that plastic to the right for the melons to grow on. If you look close you can see SP in blue by the back doors waving at you.



After going through several scenarios and idea of what I wanted for trellises, I finally decided on cattle panels as there was a closeout on them. They will last FOREVER! They are about 3-4" above the ground so they are not getting wet from the watering system. The watering system has been put on an automatic timer. It goes on for 15 minutes 3x a day. I have left the sides of the greenhouse down the last few days. Currently it made it to a high of 63F today. The alpacas finally ate the grass down alongside the walls to the top of the boards. I still need to take a weedeater in there, but don't want to do it until the sides are up for ventilation.

These are the Brown Chinese geese flock (3) to mow in the Greenhouse complex. See how they do such a nice job on the fenceline? Now if I can only get them to eat Daisies. The Buff American geese will live in the newly established orchard to keep the grass down in there. I am crossing my fingers for at least a flock of 9 this year.




Been harvesting some of our mint which grows here on the farm for Farmer's Market. In about 3 days.. maybe Sunday, I am planting a WHOLE LOT of herbs. Including 12 varieties of Basil.



These are the swarms I tried to catch 8 days ago. No takers for the bait hive. I am guessing these ones are dead or found somewhere else, and a new swarm arrived in the same tree yesterday. These are about 30 feet up the tree, the new swarm is at least 5-10 feet higher.


This is the bait hive I put out for them. I have a bottom board which is solid with that single hole in each side for a door. That is the only base I had, so I used what I had for spare parts. I currently have 30-40 scout bees checking it out this afternoon and then zooming back up to the swarm. They better decide. It rained on them last night and likely tonight if they don't find a home soon. There is no way I can climb up to where they are and I am not going to shoot them down out of there.



This is my squash lineup for 2015:

Summer Types ( 8 )
 Yellow Crookneck 50 days
 Cocozelle 52 days
 Costata Romanesco 52 days
 Golden Zucchini 50-55 days
 Dirani Lebanese 50 days
 Lemon 55 days
 Patisson Panache, Verte et Blanc 60-70 days
 Early White Bush Scallop 70 days
 
 Winter Types (20)
 Spaghetti Squash for Bruce (C. pepo)  88 days. Introduced by Sakata Seed Co. of Japan in 1934
 Cheyenne Bush Pumpkin (C. pepo) 80-90 days
 Jack Be Little (C. pepo) 90 days
 Tours(C. pepo) (aka Citrouille de Touraine, French Tours) 90-100  1856
 Delicata (C. pepo) 100 days (C. pepo) 100 days  1894
 Ole Zeb's Pumpkin (C. pepo) 105
 
 Potimarron (C. maxima) 82-96 days
 Galeux d' Eysines (C. maxima) 95-100 days
 Crown (C. maxima) 100 days Old from NZ
 Golden Hubbard (C. maxima) 100 days Also called "Genesee Red Hubbard" and was introduced in 1898.
 Oregon Homestead Sweet Meat (C. maxima) 100 days.
 Boston Marrow (C. maxima) 105 days. 1831
 Sibley(C. maxima). 110 days. New York in 1887

 Chirimen (C. moschata) 91 days 1922
 Kikuza (C. moschata) 95 days 1927
 Sucrine Du Berry (C. moschata)  100 days
 Waltham Butternut (C. moschata) 105 days
 Long Island Cheese (C. moschata) 105 days
 Canadian Crookneck ****** (C. moschata) 110 days. 1834
 Shishigatani (C. moschata)  110 days 1804

Apparently I did not write down what melons I planted, so I have to remedy that this evening so I have a record. I might add that in a bit. They are up about 1" as of today.

I figured out my lettuce and spinach lineup this evening:

Spinach: (6)
Monstrueux de Viroflay
America
Giant Noble
Bloomsdale Long Standing
New Zealand [not a true spinach]
King of Denmark

Lettuce: (21)
Yugoslavian Red Butterhead (never without this variety, it is my fav)
Tennis Ball
Pirat Butterhead
May Queen
Reine des Glaces
Red Flamingo
Greek Maroulii Cos
Pandero
Rougette du Midi
Hungarian Winter Pink
Summertime
Garnet Rose
Galisse
Sanguine Amerliore
Red Velvet
Pinot
d'Hiver de Sante Marthe
Tom Thumb
Big Boston
Freckles
Rouge d' Hiver

I will try to get more photos up this weekend.

Cedar

[RitaRose1945]

Dang!

[Cedar]

I went down to put more turkey eggs in the incubator and the seed starting racks are right next to it for the residual heat. 118 turkey eggs in the incubator right now, along with the 8 American goose eggs. Only 7 turkey eggs were infertile (I candle every few days). Not too bad.

Melons (24):
Oregon Delicious
Petit Gris de Rennes (very rare in the USA)
Charentais
Boule d'Or
Prescott Fond Blanc
Noir de Carmes (comes from medieval French Monks)
Amish
White Sugar Lump
Green Nutmeg
Pride of Wisconsin
Osh Kirgizia
Melitopolski
Moon & Stars
Ananas
Sweet Siberian
Minnesota Midget
Golden Honey
Golden Midget
Small Shining Light
Sugar Baby
Schoon's Hardshell
Banana
Blacktail Mountain
Bidwell Casaba

I believe I have enough melon seed that thankfully I am not saving seed from them this year. I am only trialing them this year for how well they grow here and how well they taste. I have two of each, three of some.

Cedar

[Cedar]

Finally got some half decent photos of the new orchard.





In my travels I checked on the new orchard. I really need the geese to go in there and mow for me. I put the recycled chick brooder shavings around some of the trees and I checked on the status of my newly grafted trees. Two don't look happy, but the other 40 look pretty good. I will be disappointed if some don't take, but I am happy that the rootstock is doing well, as I can always replace the cultiver next year.
 
It is really difficult getting a good photo of the trees, but they are in there spaced 20 feet apart from each other. In the far distance is where I will plant the grape vines one of these days.

Cedar

[RitaRose1945]

That property is just beautiful.

[sshickson]

Cedar, you are truley an inspiration!

[Cedar]

Cedar, you are truley an inspiration!

I am not sure how, still a month behind on planting the main crops. The watering system has been a pain in the patooetey as it really is a 2 person job, not 1-person and 1 small child job. But late tonight or tomorrow I should be able to get the corn in at least. I have only said that for a week now though. .. 

Cedar

[Cedar]

What I got planted last night and today at the Lodge Garden other than noted:

===================================
Corn (6)
I am separating my corn varieties by distance and time. The two gardens are 1/2 mile apart with dense forest and hills between them. (Wind pollinated)

Lodge: This has been in for 2 weeks now
"Yukon Supreme" 45 days
"Stowells Evergreen" 80-100 days
"Calico" popcorn 90-105 days (started 2 weeks before Stowells)

Greenhouse (large, not skinned)
"Golden Bantam Improved" 70-75 days
"Roy's Calais" 90-95 days
"Dakota Black" popcorn 90 days (started 10 days before Roy's Calais)

(If you have never grown your own popcorn.. and like popcorn, you MUST grow it!!!)
===================================
Greens (3)
Mizuna mustard
Asian spicy greens
Asian Mix

I also planted more lettuces last night. About 22 varieties of them? I will plant more around October in the greenhouses and Lodge garden.
===================================
Carrots (4) I may or may not plant more during the summer. Space pending.
Little Finger
Kuroda (new one for me)
Royal Chantenay
Berlicum 2 (growing out only for seed production this year, only variety which overwintered for me last year)
===================================
Radish (3) I will plant more in in about 40 days or so
Helios
Easter Egg Blend (to use it up)
Watermelon Mantang Hong
===================================
Beets (3) I decided to go light on beets this summer, and plant 6 more kinds in the fall.
Bulls Blood
Dolce di Chioggia
Golden
===================================
Soybean (1)
Disoy
===================================
Celery (4) - Finally I get to trial all of them at the same time. I will only save seed from one variety a year
Golden Self Blanching - (My Fav) 80-85 days.  Dwarf plant with yellow foliage, cream-colored 9" stalks.  Thick, heavy, stringless.
Utah Green - The long stalks of Utah Green are sweeter and much more flavorful than the celery sold at supermarkets.
Tall Utah 52/70 Improved 100-120 days.  Dark-green, 11-12" stalks.  Very compact disease resistant plant.  Bright green and stringless.
Golden Bar - 90 days.  Self-blanching with nearly stringless ivory stalks and tender leaves.  Hearts are good quality. (This is probably my choice on growing out for seed production this year).
===================================
Beans (5) - I decided not to grow any pole beans this year, I farmed 3 varieties out to others to grow
as I did not want to buy any more cattle panels, as look up in the orchard fencing photos ^^. All those are my trellises next year. I think there are 60 of them?
Contender
Black Valentine
Derby
Burpees Stringless
Fin de Bagnol
===================================
Peas (7)
Asparagus pea (which is not a pea)
Parsley Pea (new one for me, has leaves which look like parsley)
British Wonder
Melting Sugar
Carouby de Maussane - this one gets 12' tall and is my fav
Blauschokkers
Golden Sweet
===================================
Cucumbers (6) - I will start more in the little greenhouse when the melons are done. These are in the Lodge garden.
Mexican Sour Gherkin
Russian Pickling
Telegraph Improved
Boothsby's Blonde
Double Yield
Poona Kheera
===================================

Cedar

[designergirl28]

I want to grow up to be you!!! You are amazing!

I am in total agreement! I have cedarenvy.

[Cedar]

I finally got the last of the melons into the greenhouse. I have been holding off due to the water situation and I have not gotten to plant everything I have wanted to. But the tomatoes, eggplants and peppers are looking good. 192 feet of tomatoes in 102 or 104 different varieties. I was so excited to finally actually be able to do that. I planted them close this year to get them all in. They don't look too tall in the photo, but they are 18-24" tall at this point, and starting to flower.



Many of the tomato plants are blooming, so soon there ought to be tomatoes for seed savings, Farmer's Market and for canning for home. Now that the trellises and watering is in, I am going to make a greenhouse in a greenhouse and plant the tomatoes, eggplant and peppers in January. With the way it is set up now, I think I can just arch PVC over the top at the t-posts and then add over clear plastic which I already have all those things.

Everything in the gardens is still just at the growing stage, so nothing too exciting to put into text or photos about them yet. Soon. The hot weather has made the lettuces bolt. I got more of that planted out. I gave up on peas until late August.



Z thinks he got everything ordered, so he may take next week off and get three of the 2,500 gallon water tanks set up.

Cedar

[artephius]

I am in total agreement! I have cedarenvy.

Me as well! Thanks for keeping us posted on all your work Cedar! Your garden threads are beyond inspiring!

[Cedar]

This garden is done for the year due to unforeseen circumstances. Oh well, there is always next year.
Stay tuned for 2016.

Cedar

[archer]

good luck/skill next year!

[lifeiscrazysomedays]

I absolutely love reading your posts. Thanks for all the information.

[bigbear]

Have any updates on the garden/homestead?

[Cedar]

Gimme a week or so, and then I have a helluva post to share....

Cedar

[Jeremy Downing]

Gimme a week or so, and then I have a helluva post to share....

Cedar

Pictures or it didn't happen!

I'm jonsing for good garden pr0n.

[Cedar]

Here is the start of the rest of the story.. and yes, there are photos. I have been typing posts for the last 2 years I have not been able to publish, but hanging onto ready to post the day I was able to starting to do so.
http://thesurvivalpodcast.com/forum/index.php?topic=60135.msg713169#msg713169

Cedar