Crystal Madrilejos

As we’ve mentioned many times before, this is our first dip into the gardening pool. We’ve learned a lot thus far and have been surprised by many things but nothing prepared us for the vigor of the small, dirty starch balls we call potatoes. They grow like mad! Our garden rows are packed and our build-as-they-go container is even more so. We literally could not dig up enough dirt to keep up with them. We had to give up and just let them go. This is the picture we posted before of the container right when the taters started to sprout:

And this is how far we got in building up the sides of the container before the potatoes got out of control:

Some of the plants are blooming which means there are potatoes down below. We got a little shovel-happy and decided to dig up one of our Yukon Gold plants, below was the yield:

Needless to say, they were so, so good. For the rest of potato plants we’re going to let them bloom and start to die a little before we harvest them so the potatoes can continue to grow and it’ll allow some time for their skin to toughen up a bit as well.

-a.

Out of all the things I wanted in the garden, lettuces were right near the top of the list, which went: potatoes, lettuces, corn. See, I told you it was near the top. And I’m happy to report that our little leafy greens are flourishing. They’re to the point where I think we totally overdid it. Note for next year: A full row of arugula is way too much. I think we were arugula-deprived heading into spring so we overcompensated, and then some. But, there are worse things than having too much arugula, like having no arugula.

All the varieties we planted (Swiss Chard, Green Oakleaf, Lolla Rossa, arugula, Red Romaine, Tango, Gold Rush, spinach, kale and some all-inclusive mesclun mix) are up and producing wonderfully. There’s nothing like picking fresh, fragrant salad greens minutes before a meal.

Below is a picture of our first salad bounty. These are just the thinnings.

It’s nutty to look at the above pictures because they were taken a little while ago and the lettuces are so much fuller now:

-a.

Our peonies began blooming a few weeks ago.

Lucky for us, we got a couple before they were all gone.

–c.

Last weekend we transplanted all our starts into the ground. We’re now crossing our fingers that they make it!

Here they are hardening off on the porch before going into the ground. Wish them luck!

–c.

They’re growing! Here are the ones in the main garden plot.

And the ones in the separate plot that wouldn’t fit into the main garden. They are even bigger than this now. It’s nuts how fast these are growing!

–c.

The fencing around the garden has taken many shapes in our heads. Initially we wanted to put up chicken wire (or as some call it, “poultry netting,” which does seem a bit more politically correct) around the bottom of the existing fence that encloses the pasture. But then that seemed insecure so we figured we’d better fence closer to the actual garden. Luckily, and fittingly, our pole barn had just enough metal fence poles laying around for us to use.

We went back and forth on what kind of fencing to choose. Apparently we’re vain because from the get-to we knew we didn’t want to use plastic fencing because it would have looked ugly. There was no other reasoning than that.

Ultimately we ended up getting 200′ of 48″ tall chicken wire. Then we put a call out for old wire hangers and managed to gather more than we’d ever like to see again. (Handling hundreds of wire hangers is the most frustrating puzzle of snags and tangles ever.) We cut the two curved ends off of them and used those to “tack” down the bottom of the fence to keep out our little rabbit/groundhog/raccoon/skunk friends.

I also built a wooden cover that’s attached to the garden gate. It slides up and down when you come and go to cover the sizable gaps between the gate and fence that the critters could have squeezed through. So with those little nuisances taken care of we turned our attention to those cute, damn deer.

Deer don’t like many things, but even if they don’t like it, they’ll get used to it. So if you deter them with a scent or movement or noise, it will initially work, but they’ll get hip to it and you’ll have to change your method. The only thing that will work for good is a really tall fence. And by really tall we mean 12 feet. Think about that; it’s nuts! Next time you’re on a basketball court look up at the rim, then add two feet to that and that’s how tall the ding-dang fence would have to be. Now again, think about that! I’m 6’3″ and a deer could clear me by over four feet. Nature!

As mentioned before, we went with the 48″ tall chicken wire, so we’re planning on using different tactics throughout the summer to deter them. For example, horrible, terrible, horrible smelling spray, maybe some thoughtfully placed fishing line, wind chimes, or who knows, we may end up booby-trapping the fields. We did add stakes to the top of each pole and strung some white rope through them — which raised the total height to about 6’6″ — to hopefully make the deer think twice, or at least one and a half times.

So far we’ve had no burglars, but we can feel the deer closing in. They’ve been sleeping closer and closer in the fields and I know they’re scheming. Those little devils.

–a.

The fencing around the garden has taken many shapes in our heads. Initially we wanted to put up chicken wire (or as some call it, “poultry netting,” which does seem a bit more politically correct) around the bottom of the existing fence that encloses the pasture. But then that seemed insecure so we figured we’d better fence closer to the actual garden. Luckily, and fittingly, our pole barn had just enough metal fence poles laying around for us to use.

We went back and forth on what kind of fencing to choose. Apparently we’re vain because from the get-to we knew we didn’t want to use plastic fencing because it would have looked ugly. There was no other reasoning than that.

Ultimately we ended up getting 200′ of 48″ tall chicken wire. Then we put a call out for old wire hangers and managed to gather more than we’d ever like to see again. (Handling hundreds of wire hangers is the most frustrating puzzle of snags and tangles ever.) We cut the two curved ends off of them and used those to “tack” down the bottom of the fence to keep out our little rabbit/groundhog/raccoon/skunk friends.

I also built a wooden cover that’s attached to the garden gate. It slides up and down when you come and go to cover the sizable gaps between the gate and fence that the critters could have squeezed through. So with those little nuisances taken care of we turned our attention to those cute, damn deer.

Deer don’t like many things, but even if they don’t like it, they’ll get used to it. So if you deter them with a scent or movement or noise, it will initially work, but they’ll get hip to it and you’ll have to change your method. The only thing that will work for good is a really tall fence. And by really tall we mean 12 feet. Think about that; it’s nuts! Next time you’re on a basketball court look up at the rim, then add two feet to that and that’s how tall the ding-dang fence would have to be. Now again, think about that! I’m 6’3″ and a deer could clear me by over four feet. Nature!

As mentioned before, we went with the 48″ tall chicken wire, so we’re planning on using different tactics throughout the summer to deter them. For example, horrible, terrible, horrible smelling spray, maybe some thoughtfully placed fishing line, wind chimes, or who knows, we may end up booby-trapping the fields. We did add stakes to the top of each pole and strung some white rope through them — which raised the total height to about 6’6″ — to hopefully make the deer think twice, or at least one and a half times.

So far we’ve had no burglars, but we can feel the deer closing in. They’ve been sleeping closer and closer in the fields and I know they’re scheming. Those little devils.

–a.

Yesterday, the Swiss Chard seeds were sowed in the garden! Potatoes have been in the ground for a couple weeks now and they are sprouting up so fast. I’ll post pictures soon. We planted waaaay too many potatoes. Serious. We are going to have 300lbs of potatoes by fall.

–c.

We had to wait until the ground was sufficiently thawed and dried out a bit before we could plow. There is an old time farmer named Mr. Chandler down the road from us who was kind enough to lend us his plow. Last year, Andrew and Andrew’s dad and brother helped Mr. Chandler and his son put their barn door back up that had come off it’s track. Andrew said it felt really nice, like he imagined it was in the old days, neighbors weren’t strangers and everyone helped one another out. Afterwards, Mr. Chandler’s daughter-in-law baked us pies as a thank you!

Andrew’s dad drove the plow because he is familiar with them. It’s crazy how powerful machinery is! The type of plowing we did is called moldboard plowing which is a pretty intense way to turn up the soil and clear the land. Usually for gardens as small as ours this is a one-time, never-need-to-do-again plowing process. It’s hard on the land and over time, if it is done repeatedly, can actually ruin the soil. Next year we will just till and we should be fine.

The plow took about 10-15 minutes to clear a 30′ X 40′ space! That was the easy part. We then had to rototill the whole plot (it would have been ideal to disc the field at this point, but we didn’t have one of those). Oh, and the raking…ugh…talk about back breaking work.

The weeding for the first year is going to be absolutely horrific, but we just need to stay on it!

Next step: fencing.

–c.

We had to wait until the ground was sufficiently thawed and dried out a bit before we could plow. There is an old time farmer named Mr. Chandler down the road from us who was kind enough to lend us his plow. Last year, Andrew and Andrew’s dad and brother helped Mr. Chandler and his son put their barn door back up that had come off it’s track. Andrew said it felt really nice, like he imagined it was in the old days, neighbors weren’t strangers and everyone helped one another out. Afterwards, Mr. Chandler’s daughter-in-law baked us pies as a thank you!

Andrew’s dad drove the plow because he is familiar with them. It’s crazy how powerful machinery is! The type of plowing we did is called moldboard plowing which is a pretty intense way to turn up the soil and clear the land. Usually for gardens as small as ours this is a one-time, never-need-to-do-again plowing process. It’s hard on the land and over time, if it is done repeatedly, can actually ruin the soil. Next year we will just till and we should be fine.

The plow took about 10-15 minutes to clear a 30′ X 40′ space! That was the easy part. We then had to rototill the whole plot (it would have been ideal to disc the field at this point, but we didn’t have one of those). Oh, and the raking…ugh…talk about back breaking work.

The weeding for the first year is going to be absolutely horrific, but we just need to stay on it!

Next step: fencing.

–c.