W.U.F. Update 04.04.10

We are working on getting the potatoes planted today.  We also have peas and Chinese greens that need to be planted.  We are taking a break for lunch and I wanted to share that we have a ton of volunteer spinach around the yard.  Our mints are doing well and are about ready for the first harvest.  The bronze fennel is poking up now.  The strawberries are thriving.  We also have volunteer garlic and onions coming up right now.

Sy planted blue pansies around the Circle this  past week.  We have a ton of pansies to get in the ground.  They are self seeding and edible.  The flowers are quite tasty with a salad of spring greens.  I can't describe how they taste as different colors of flowers seem to have different flavors ranging from sweet to slightly nutty.

I will be posting some pics later after we get the potatoes and such planted today.

Spring Is Sprung.

Here are some early spring pictures from W.U.F.  There also pics of the truck we bought with tax return money so that we have an effective and reliable vehicle to haul the things we need for the garden.  Stay tuned as spring continues to unfold, as we will be busier with planting and such, but will be posting more often as well.

The last day of summer is bringing snow and freezing overnight temps.

I am off work on Sundays and Mondays. I woke up Monday to find out that there was a freeze warning and possible snow coming. We started out for our weekly trip to the farmers market, and it started to rain. We got to the market and there were two vendors sticking it out. We bought some green beans, and peaches from Colorado's western slope. We were also able to get a great price on a case of peaches and cream corn. We have canned this for the winter. We left the market and went to Home Despot to get materials to build a couple of cold frames for the cherry tomatoes, and the bell peppers.

After we got home we worked to get everything we could in. We picked buckets of squash, bell peppers, and cherry tomatoes. After the harvest was in we had to build the cold frames for the cherry tomatoes and bell peppers. We used some 1 x 2 cedar screwed together into a frame. We then covered these with 3.5 mil plastic. Simple and easy to disassemble, store, and reuse for years to come.

The Prickly Pear Melomel is still fermenting nicely. I expect it is going to do so for awhile. But good things come to those who wait. Anyway I hope everyone checks out the pics and has a great day.

W.U.F. Update 06.09.09

The garden is doing well. We got quite a bit accomplished with Carols help today. The weeding is nearly caught up. I got the remaining tomato seedlings planted today. We now have 35 tomato plants of two varieties in the ground. I also got the long Island Cheese Squash planted. I also finally got the Atlantic Giant pumpkin seeds in the ground. I have wanted to grow a giant pumpkin for years but have never gotten it done. Maybe this is the year. We now also have four or five potato plants poking up out of their mounds of straw.

The corn is about 10 inches high. The onions and garlic are both doing well. The broccoli is producing new heads. The cherry tomatoes have fruit on them. We have harvested approximately five pounds of spinach already with no signs of letting up. I got the pole peas tied up yesterday. Next year I will have the infrastructure in place so I can grow them taller. They laid on the ground for too long and now they have bent stalks. All of the squash are doing well, and we expect to have more squash than we know what to do with soon.

All four of the mints are doing well. We are going to try and make some orange mint vodka and some pineapple mint vodka. We are experimenting with some horehound mint cough syrup with good results so far. The spicy oregano, and the rosemary are doing well. The bronze fennel can be harvested anytime.

We have had blueberries and strawberries. The raspberries are doing well, and we have harvested the rhubarb a couple of times. The rhubarb is ready to harvest again. I can't wait until it is time to get Colorado Western Slope Peaches and make peach rhubarb cobbler.

We also planted marigolds, dianthus, and lobelia between the stones and the mugo pines around the sacred circle. We mulched it with straw. The next step will be to get the grass out of the circle and replace it with creeping thyme.

I will get pics up in the morning. I wanted to do it tonight but ran out of daylight. More to come soon.--Jeremy

W.U.F. 04-19-2009

It looks like today is going to be a beautiful day to work in the garden.  After 36 hours of rain, snow, and wind it will be great to be outside.  The birds have been singing loudly this morning driving the cats nuts.  They went out the door at 5:00 this morning.  What was supposed to be a huge blizzard turned out to be a weird mix of rain, snow, wind, and thunder.  On Friday at work I was pushing water out of the shop blizzard conditions with thunder.  It was quite surreal.

Carol a friend of ours is coming over to work in the garden with us this afternoon.  I have to weed the radishes and stack the bricks from our hidden brick path.  We have some new beds to plant.  We will be getting ready to transplant tomatoes and cabbage before too long.  We also have some pepper plants to transplant as well.  If I have time I am going to clean the rhubarb bed.  We have lived here four and a half years and we have never harvested the rhubarb.  That changes this year.  Next year we may have to separate it.

Thursday before the storm got here, Sy harvested and dried chives.  That is the second chive harvest this year.  Got to get those potatoes growing soon.

Random Thoughts by Syona 3.29.09

 Aloha!  It's only a few days 'til April, and the Vernal Meteorological Schizophrenia is upon us.  We just had a blizzard roll through here not 4 days ago, and the snow's already almost gone.  Windy and almost-warm, with a side of breeze.  

    Our weeds are sooo grateful for the snow.  Gosh.  While I do enjoy seeing my slice of winter-seared heaven turning green, all the greenery seems to be dandelions and tumbleweeds.  We just may try turning our hand at making some dandelion wine again this year.  The poor Chem-Lawn guy had fits driving past our yard a couple years ago, as our lawn was a lush sea of yellow; nothing but dandelions.  He finally knocks on the door, kindly offering his services, since our lawn was truly run over with these weeds.  Giving him my best "big, innocent b

lue eyes" act, he recieved an earnest, "Well, no, we're cultivating them."  When he (understandably) looked confused, I smiled brightly, "You can't make dandelion wine without the dandelions!"  He literally strangled out an incoherent reply, galloped back to his truck, and never returned again.  There's probably a prayer for me stuck to the side of some Chem-Lawn Gods shrine somewhere.  Poor guy.  

    We've got some creeping thyme seed.  This year, our Circle is finally going to be finished.  This project (our Sacred Circle, complete with altar) has been in progress for nearly five years.  The Quarter and Cross-Quarter stones, when installed, were the first real change we made to our yard, our first "footprint," so to speak.  After such a long gestation, to finally see our first project coming near to fruition is thrilling.  We'll of course post pics along the way to keep ya'll up to date.

    Our peas are coming up.  Yay.  The berries are accused of making leaf, but so far we only have one suspect.  Inquiries are being made.  The chives all got their first haircut of the season, a brutal hack job committed by yours truly.  (Well, what did you expect - I never was good at cutting my own hair.)  Their shaggy manes lopped off the morning of the blizza

rd, Jeremy was concerned they'd be thrown into shock.  I however, was totally dismissive of his concerns.  "They're chives," I sniffed.  Well, it's now 4 days later, and these herbs have grown at least 2 inches.  2 of those 4 days, they were buried under 4 inches of snow.  Yeah, I'm real concerned for their tender lives.  They'll probably outlive the cockroaches.  (Jeremy is reading this as I write it, and grumbled.)

    I planted 3 new strawberries not a week before the blizzard, without hardening them off first.  Oops.  The enthusiasm of the rookie - they were in the ground a full day before I even thought about the hardening of our store-bought plants.  They are, fortunately, doing beautifully.  Jeremy is, as I write, reluctantly uncovering my new rosemary in the front yard.  In his words, "it's quite lovely."  Joy.

    My bathroom is the brightest and warmest room of the house.  So now my countertops are covered with seedling trays.  I can't tell you how giddy I am.  My formerly spa

cious and tidy sanctuary is now more organic than some of the yards in my neighborhood.  A

t least I enjoy the scent of moist, fecund earth.  

   Well, as usual, my conversation has nosedived into potty humor.  I'll let you go for now.  Talk at ya some more later.  

Sy;)

March Update

So far March has been a good month at W.U.F.  We have managed to get two varieties of peas planted along with beets, onions, leeks and carrots.  We also planted a new raspberry bush and a blackberry bush to supplement the two raspberry bushes we planted last year.  The spearmint is back with lots of new shoots.  The pineapple mint is pushing up through its mulch.  The strawberries are coming back strong and already showing new growth.  The chives are ready for the first harvest of the year, with one plant going to seed already.  The fennel just popped its head through the mulch yesterday.  

We started digging a new bed last weekend, and it appears their is a brick path under the lawn.  It looks like somebody planted grass right on top of the brick.  Our house was built in the fifties, and we have found a lot of small treasures in the lawn, but a brick sidewalk was completely unexpected. It will be out by the end of this weekend so that we can prep the bed.  We are planning to plant our lettuce and spinach here to fill in the space until we can get squash planted and sprouted.  The lettuce and spinach require a fairly short growing time and will hold the soil until the squash is ready to spread out.  We will plant other beds with lettuce and spinach as well.   

I am trying to get a slide show up with updated pics every week.  I will also begin labeling posts so that folks can find things that fit their specific interests.  I hope everyone has a great week.