We “planted” 43 tomato stakes. The thinking is that it will be easier to mulch, and then plant the actual tomatoes by the stake, instead of staking them at a later date. Note to self: I must remember to spread wood ash before planting – and before mulching.

The self seeded lettuce is doing well – we may have our first real salad today.

M noticed some strange little plants coming up in Rambo’s garden. On closer inspection, I do believe it is cumin that went to seed last year before I knew what was happening. I will try and keep these self seeders going. : )

Our new experiment for the year: a potato box. One pound potato seed is supposed to yield 100 pounds potatoes. If this is anywhere near true, and it goes as I think it will, this will be a space saving, less labor intensive way to raise our potatoes. M will be posting with photos.

Yesterday, May 8, the first addition of compost was given to the onion plants. I was supposed to have started at three weeks, but made it at four weeks plus. : ) I even remembered the extra row of onions.

I “should” do this every three weeks until three weeks before harvest. Let’s see, that will be May 29, June 19, July 11, August 1, August 20 (maybe?) Of course I will need to stop on the Alisas, and maybe the Red Candy Apples before that.

The soft neck garlic looked a little yellow. They got some compost as well. The stiff neck looks good.

The walking onions are starting what looks like seed heads? I wonder if it is time to use them?

My homegrown plants were looking pretty pathetic. After a forecast check to determine the chance of frost in the next two weeks (none as of this moment), I decided to plant them. Added bonus, the sun was out today and won’t be seen again until several days and possibly a half inch of rain later.

Six celery plants, 24 celeriac and what started as 30 leeks but increased due to double and triple seedlings per pot, are now beginning their journey towards our stomachs, or so I hope.

April 27, 90º, and the Shin Koruda carrots have been planted.

I also transplanted some red romaine that I found coming up into the other bed of self seeding lettuce. The Rosemary, which very obviously cannot survive our winters has been removed. In its place I put the mostly dead Oregano plant. Maybe it will come back. The remaining Thyme plant was also put into the garden.

The lettuce seed I planted has not come up….but the transplants are doing fine. I did see some spinach finally showing.

The apricot is past blooming, but the peach is in full blossom today, as is the flowering pear. Maybe someone will add a photo…

Update! May 10 the boards were removed to reveal 1/2 to one inch carrot plants! The weather had been continually rainy and on the cool side since the planting.

Saturday, April 18, we planted two rows of potatoes, mostly Red Norland and Red Pontiac. We still have saved seed to plant a row of Kennebecs when the ground dries again. We decided that the red potatoes have superior flavor over the Kennebec, especially when roasted. Our local feedstore carried seed potatoes this year so I bought five pounds of Red Norland for $3.00, as we had not had that great a harvest of them last year (the first year we tried them.) Both reds were refrigerated after curing, but we found the Norland kept better than the Pontiacs.

Update! Friday, April 24, I planted 34 Kennebec. They missed nice soaking rains, so will take that into consideration when looking at their yield.

Ten bundles of luscious onions from Dixondale Farms arrived on March 30. I planted the Alisa Craigs (1 bundle) and the Red Zeppelins (2 bundles) on March 31st. Then it rained and we planted the majority of the remainder on April 5: 4 bundles Copra, 1 bundle Red Candy Apple and 1 bundle Mars. It rained the next day giving them a nice watering. Something over 200 feet of onion rows. Yes, we loves our sweet red onions…or for that matter, onions, period.

Now we seem to have some sort of Pest pulling out our newly planted onions. The last two days I checked and replanted about 2 dozen onions each day. Birds?? Something to keep me busy! The first planting seems to be doing much better than the second planting. Both got rain within a day of planting. No sure why there is a difference…

There was a number of onion plants left over. I stared at them for a week and finally could not stand it. I planted all but the remaining Copras, and now have another 40 feet of onions: Alisa, Red Zeps, Candys and Mars. They may not do that well where they are planted, but we will see what happens.

Yesterday and today I planted some Fukagawa Onions in the middle of a double bean row-to-come. We will have ‘walking onions’ as well as the Fukagawa for early onions this year. We have a few Red Zeps left from last year. They kept almost as well as the Copra – of which we still have plenty!

Next year’s onion order – less Copra, more Red Zep…like maybe 2 Copra and 3 Red Zep, instead of the 4 Copra and 2 Red Zep we have this year. Definitely Alisa, Mars. We will see how the Red Candy does and tastes…

Yesterday, April 9, lettuce and spinach planted. About two weeks later than usual, but this has been a COLD spring to date. There is some lettuce self starting, which we have under row cover, but with it being so cold, it is just sitting there waiting for some heat, like me.

Again, a little late, but our heat loving plants have been started. I’m using Miracle Grow Starter medium this year as opposed to generic, who-knows-what that did Not perform well last year. I’m hoping we do better this year.

• Giant Syrian Tomato 12 plants (new variety – still seeking the ultimate tasty tomato)
• Big Beefsteak Tomato 12 plants
• San Maranzo Tomato 15 plants – a ‘square’ paste tomato
• Milano Tomato 10 plants – another paste that I wasn’t super thrilled with, but I had the seed…
• New Ace Pepper – 12 plants
• Dusky Eggplant – 12 plants – a real producer of good eggplants for us – 63 days…

It’s snowing outside…

Only about two weeks behind schedule, I finally got the brassicas started in the cold frame.

From the west side:

• Windsor Broccoli (new to us)
• Umpqua Broccoli (also new to us)
• Surprise Cabbage (sweet, wonderful, early, with small heads)
• Wakamine Cabbage (new cabbage)
• Krautman Cabbage (our ‘reliable’ regular)

Here’s hoping for satisfactory germination.

The Egg Report

From January 13, 2009 to April 4, 2009 the chickens have laid 692 eggs or 58 Dozen in those 81 days. The two week tracking periods have slowly moved up from 120 eggs to 140+ eggs and are now up to 155 eggs per tracking period. Are they ramping up for eggs to take over the world?

If my memory serves me (as I could NOT find it written down anywhere), since they satrted laying in November- through January 12, they laid 11 dozen. That makes their total to date 69 dozen or almost 5 dozen eggs per bird. Guess they have at least paid for themselves!

Ah, first day of spring! We set up the cold frame in preparation for starting brassicas and maybe some lettuce if there is room. We also set up the pea fence – which means chicken freedom is coming to an end.

Inside our leeks are sprouted, celery and celeriac are beginning to emerge.

Our onion plants may be arriving in 10 days. A newsletter from Dixondale Farms had some interesting info on onion plants that we didn’t know:

The size of an onion bulb is dependent upon the number and size of green leaves at the time of bulb maturity. For each leaf, there will be a ring of onion; the larger the leaf, the larger the ring will be. The perfect onion has 13 rings, which means that you should strive for 13 leaves if you want the biggest onions you’ve ever grown. The 9th leaf is usually the largest leaf on the plant, and that’s when the nitrogen fertility should peak.

When the 13th leaf appears, the onion is getting ready to start curing. This occurs at about the same time that the rest of the larger leaves have transferred most of their carbohydrates to the rings, so the onion’s neck will start getting soft. It won’t need as much moisture, which means you should stop irrigating the crop from this point on.

So count your leaves to determine what stage your onions are in. If you have only 9 leaves, then you’ll probably get a medium-sized onion. And remember, planting closer or later reduces bulb size.