In between gray

Broccoli in the garden

It is foggy this morning, and I'm waiting for the fog to burn off and the dew to go away, so I check the hay curing on the ground.

In the mean time, I did some house chores, and hoed in the garden.  Status:

• The long rains followed by gorgeous clear days seems to have made the broccoli particularly happy.
• The rains took out the carrots, most of the potatoes, and some of the squash.  When I expressed displeasure with the drowned potato seed, one of my nieces, who grew up in Ireland, said "Oh, Aunt Hetty, these things grow in Ireland.  Think about it!"   She may be right...two plants popped up in the "wettest" trench over night!  I'll leave the trenches alone for a bit more.
• Rutabaga, lettuce, and beans are up from seed.  Tomatoes seem ok., but need to be staked.
• George and I got the first hay into the barn.  We also got the baler, wagon and tractor stuck in the hayfield twice, and got out by ourselves twice.  Whoo hoo!   As George noted, we now have lots of experience hooking and unhooking machinery for this year.
• The farm sign is in place by the road.   We've already had one person ask "Where is the island"?  The "island" is described on the bottom of the Rock Island Farm web page.

Potato plant in the least wet trench

Got hay?

Wildflower from August, 2011

It is really nice when one gets to the time of year when people starting looking at you sideways and saying..."Got hay?   We're going to need X number of bales...".

We had a gorgeous hay window, in terms of weather, this past week.   It had me standing, staring into the breeze, wanting to hay.   Unfortunately, like other people with clay soils, we need a few dry days before such a window in the spring to allow the hay field to dry out.   That kind of weather hasn't happened yet.   Haying on wet grounds mucks up the soil, and produces potentially musty hay.

But, the haying equipment is all out of storage, oil and greased, and ready to go.  Well, almost.  We're still messing around with the bale knotter a bit, but we'll manage that.  We just need the weather.

We'll list hay for sale on the farm website and on Craig's List when we have hay in the barn.   I know it would be easier for some buyers if we did advance sales, and I'd really like to say "yes" when we get asked.   But, we need to get the hay in the barn first, and then sell it. We're a small, local farm, relying on some older equipment and some older people, and we don't want to promise something that we might not be able to deliver. 

Producing and selling hay is an important part of our ability to keep the land classified as "agricultural", as we slowly improve soils and increase our vegetable production.  Please remember us when you need feed or mulch hay and pass the word.

Please support your local farms

Rain, potatoes, and ditches

It has been raining.  A lot.    Nothing like the amount it has rained in Southern Maine, but a lot.

I went out this morning to check on the garden, and found the potato trenches full of standing water, several inches deep.   It would be nice to have a "before" photo, but at time like these, one tends to run for the shovel first.

The picture at right shows a partially drained potato trench, with a bit of drainage ditch below.   I dug about 45 or 50 feet of drainage ditch along one edge of the garden.  Then, I widened it to hold more water, and started a side ditch to try to sheet the stormwater off into a buffer area.   I'm glad that it wasn't raining while I was doing this, and that there is a large vegetated buffer area beside and below bed #1. 

The water shown in the left side of the photo is in one of the potato trenches.  The water heading off to the right is in part of the ditch.   The rest of the bed #1 looks pretty good.  The paths between the plantings tended to drain off the water.

But..the seed potatoes may be rotting in the ground.   This would be unfortunate, because we store the potatoes and eat them during the winter.   If the seed potatoes are rotted, I wonder if we can still find any more around here?

On a cheerier note, the grass is nice and green.

The white temporary fencing is used to keep the groundhogs out of the garden. So far, we haven't had to electrify it.   We have nice groundhogs around here.

The wind is from the northeast, and more rain is coming.   No watering is required, happy and cool onion seedlings, pumps in the cellar working, and George just came home looking sharp from the barber.  Time for lunch!

Muggy, almost rain, almost dry

Newly planted onion seedlings

 It is muggy today, and the mosquitoes are holding facilitated meetings to determine whether to attack in force or simply swoop in and carry away their victim for later munching.

The ground is a bit too wet to plant the onions.   Maybe will be dry enough this afternoon.

I put some seedlings for sale down by the road.  

We found out that ordering a new starter motor for the tractor, locally, would cost about $600, so George is looking into other options.   If we really get stuck, the local place says they can get a starter motor overnight.   We ordered a new ignition switch.

We want to get the existing starter motor rebuilt, but this is not a good time to pull it off the tractor, since we need the tractor.   George found some less expensive starter motors on line, which say they are for our model tractor, but the pictures look different.   So, we're on hold until the full maintenance manual we ordered comes in...expected June 11.  

In the mean time, we use the time tested method of crossing fingers the tractor will start.   So far, so good.   And...if the rain holds off, I can leave the seedlings out for awhile by the road.   And, if things dry out, I can plant the onions.  And, if it rains, I can grease the baler.   And, if the mosquitoes decide to carry me off, hiding in the garage with the baler would be good.

Note added in evening -- Cleared up nicely.  I got the baler greased (mostly) - George will help find the grease points I missed next rainy day.   Oh, I forgot to grease the kicker on the baler, but I'll get that in the next couple of days.   Planted seven boxes of onion seedlings.   Someone left us an extra $1 when they bought seedlings.  :)   Every bit helps.

Happiness is empty onion seedling boxes

Silence, hay season, and garden beds

Cucumber Seedlings

The University of Maine has already started haying its fields.   I still have to grease our hay baler, and George is going to work on the baler's clutch.    These things have to happen before we even take the baler out of the garage.

We've been waiting to turn over the vegetable plots.   Normally I try to do this around mid-May, then do it again around the end of May, then plant.  The gap between the first and second turning allows the winter rye, which has been turned under, to break down.   The second turning wipes out the sprouting weeds that thought they were about to take over the world.

Vegetable Bed #1

This year, we didn't do the "first" turning, because the ground never got dry enough.   So, yesterday, we went to do our one and only turning.   We use our one and only farm tractor, an old Agco Allis 5650.   This is the same tractor that we depend upon to get in the hay.   That would be during the hay season that has already started.

Vegetable Bed #2

George started up the tractor a few days ago, and moved it out of its winter storage space in the sheep barn.  He came in the house and happily announced that the tractor had "started right up". 

Yesterday, we moved the tractor over to the tiller and hooked it up.   I got up in the seat to start the engine.  Silence.   Not even a sputter or a click.

George determined that the problem was an electrical issue.  He checked the fuses and switches, and we pulled lots of things apart.  We couldn't find the problem, and that left the starter motor as a possible culprit.   This was late afternoon on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend.  No way to get parts before Tuesday, and even then, might have to order them.

We both stayed calm, and kept nosing around the tractor.   We didn't get it started, but we were great.

The next morning, George climbed up on the tractor and started it.  Just like that.   George says that the brushes in the starter mower may be wearing out and just a bit of moisture, or maybe a shift in angle, got it started.   He is going to order a new starter motor and ignition switch.

We turned over the main vegetable beds today.   We always seem to be the last ones in the area to get our garden going, but we have big, flat, heavy clay beds that take a long time to dry out in the spring.   Last year I didn't get the garden in until the first week in June, but we still did fine.

Tomorrow if it doesn't rain and there is time...maybe I can start some new vegetable beds!  Go Agco Allis!

Another Vegetable Bed Picture

Sign and Sedge

 Our farm sign arrived, along with some news about Orono Sedge.

We have needed a farm sign.   Folks picking up hay have complained that sometimes they drive by us two or three times because they can't find the farm.  That is because the land is in back and, from the road, we look like a house and yard.

Having no sign budget, I tried making a sign.  It is still leaning on the side of the frig in the kitchen.  I kind of liked it, but then I made it.   George had misgivings.

I noticed that the Orono Land Trust had put up some nice wooden signs on the Davis land conservation easement over on Gardiner Road, which is close to us.

So, I contacted the Orono Land Trust last year, to find out who made their signs.

The person who got back said he made the signs, and he'd make us a farm sign if we joined the Orono Land Trust!   This was great!   So, we ended up with two wonderful things - a farm sign and a land trust membership!   I'd been wanting to join the land trust, but it wasn't in the budget.   So, this gets us started.

When David dropped off the sign, he mentioned that Orono Sedge wasn't just on the Davis conservation easement, but all through the nearby hay fields.   It might be in our hay fields.

Orono sedge is Maine's only endemic plant species (occurring no where else).   Information from Maine's Natural Areas Program.   The USDA lists it as threatened.

This is so great!  Not that the plant is threatened, but that it might be here!  Maybe we can help protect a plant!    But, it is not an easy plant to identify.   I would need help there.    Somehow I would need to figure out where the sedge may be, so I can hay/mow more appropriately.   I'm already trying not to destroy all the bobolink nests when I mow.  Maybe, with any luck, there would be some overlap.

Dave said avoiding mowing until August would be better for the sedge.   I know this would also be good for the Bobolinks, since the pairs here seem to stay around their nests on the ground well into July.    The challenge would be to delay mowing part of the field and still produce the hay we need for the farm, as well as do needed mowing to keep the weeds in the field under control.

I wonder if the sedge is here?   Wow, Orono Sedge!

Sunday, April 29, 2012

In Maine, the traditional "mostly safe" date to start a garden is Memorial Day.   Of course, some folks start "cool" loving things earlier, like spinach, or put in things early that won't sprout for awhile, such as potatoes.   We've had a mild winter and an early spring.   I'll probably put some seedlings out for sale a bit early.

But, we'll probably follow the usual schedule and aim for Memorial Day, for getting the garden in.   That usually gives us a long enough growing season for what we need.

In the March 17th post, there is a picture of some of the vegetable beds, clear of snow.   I wanted to post a picture of one of the beds now, to show the difference in color. 

Vegetable bed #3, planted to winter rye, late April

The light green area is Bed #3, planted with winter rye (a green manure).   The darker green is lawn.   We plant in fairly small beds (this one is about 15 x 50) because of the heavy clay soils and drainage swales.   We need to "fit" the beds in between swales, and build the beds up with organic matter.  This provides better soil for the veggies, and allows for buffers around the beds to reduce the risk of erosion problems.

If we simply opened up 3 acres or so, we'd have erosion gullies forming all over the place, which would be bad for both the soil and water quality.

I started a new "little" bed last year, in addition to a couple of large beds.  George and I just picked up blueberry plants for the little bed!   I need to work in some cow manure and phosphorous, then put in the high bush blueberry plants.   

The little blueberry bed looks "brown" around the edges in the picture.  The brown is just the remains of grass cuttings I put there last fall, to mark the bed, in case I had trouble finding it in the spring.  Beds have a way of hiding.

High bush blueberries

Yet to be turned-over blueberry bed

The blueberry plants were mostly paid for with a birthday gift from my mother-in-law, Dorothy.

Thanks, Dorothy!!

Seedlings

Broccoli seedlings in the greenhouse

I put up some new grow lights in the basement yesterday; we always seem to run short of space for seedlings.  We've been fiddling with the temperature in the small greenhouse, opening it up to cool during the day, and using the heater for warmth at night.

The broccoli seedlings growing in the basement and greenhouse were planted the same day, but look quite different, with the greenhouse plants looking happier.  It is quite a bit warmer in the greenhouse during the day, and there is more light.  But, the ones in the basement will be fine too, based on experience.

We'll need more seedlings each year, with the gradually expanding vegetable beds.  Also, I expect to have a few of the following seedlings for sale this year:  brocolli, onions, table tomatoes (red and yellow), heirloom tomatoes (a mix), maybe some Amish paste tomatoes, and cucumbers.

We also start various squash from seedlings, to give the squash a better chance against the bugs.  But, squash is easy to start from seed, so we only grow enough seedlings for the garden here.

Some people came by last year looking for seedlings for table tomatoes and cucumbers, so we are growing a few extra of those.   As usual, if they don't sell, we'll try to find room in the garden for them.

Last year, we ended up planting a lot of left-over broccoli seedlings.  But, I just cooked the last package of blanched summer broccoli from the freezer this week so, none of the broccoli went to waste!

And, now I know to plant lots of broccoli this year.   I like to make a big pile of broccoli with melted cheddar cheese on top for lunch in the winter.   I also use broccoli in beef stir fry, with onions from the cellar, although sometimes I substitute blanched and frozen string beans or carrots for the broccoli, for variety.  Yum.    The blanched and frozen vegetables taste better than the frozen vegetables from the store.   Not sure why, but they really do.

Onions seedlings in the greenhouse

Counting the signs

The robins came back last week.  The spring peepers (frogs) started singing this week, at night.      I think I saw the first barn swallow this morning, returned from South America.  The forsythia bloomed today.

George said he'd like it if I started writing these things down, when they happen, so we could keep track from year to year.

Later edition:
4/19/2012:  first dandelions

April: seedlings and sinking

Last year, I tried using a small greenhouse on the property for some seedlings, but they didn't get enough light and did poorly.  I hadn't thought much more about using the greenhouse since.  Then, I read somewhere that one could add lights.  Not sure why it took me so long to figure this out.

Now we have some lights in the greenhouse, and I'm enjoying trying to figure out how to add more.   The onion seedlings have been moved there, and seem quite happy.  The broccoli seedlings may go out there soon too.

The tomatoes have been started.   The picture above is of some of the seedling flat labels that I've been making on the kitchen table.

On the "uh oh" side of things, our tiller is slowly sinking.   We parked it in a new location last winter, and put it up on blocks as usual.  Unfortunately, the ground has shifted with the frost, and gone soft, so that the tiller is sinking pretty dramatically, and turning over gradually.  I don't want to try to move it yet, given how soft the ground is so...I check it from time to time and worry over it.

Our old truck went in for inspection and needs LOTS of work.   If it isn't one thing, it is another.  Pretty labels though, huh?  Got to like those labels.   Lining them up gives me a sense of control.   :)

Later added note:  George came home toward the end of the day, and I asked him for a second opinion on the tiller.   He said he isn't worried.