I've been distressed this winter because the weather just would not cooperate. We couldn't get the cool-weather crops planted in February - the ground was too wet. And just as it started to dry out, more rain. Over and over again. We finally got the English peas in the ground, but I'm afraid the weather is going to turn too warm too quickly for us to get a crop. See our cute little plants?
The dark stuff is organic fertilizer. The green stuff is not grass, (Dad, it's not grass!), it's an organic variety of oats that's supposed to provide some trellising for the bush peas. And green manure.
I still haven't decided whether to let some of the oats mature. Hubby's giving some thought to how we can harvest them. We'll have to do it by hand, but it may be worth it as organic, homegrown chicken feed.
Above is a shot of the garden plots, looking WSW. The "North garden" is the part right in front of me. The "South Garden" hasn't been worked yet in this pic. You can barely see the road that goes between the gardens; look at the left end of the tilled areas. On the far left is the S. garden.
With these two plots and two others that are fairly small, we'll have a bit over 1/4 acre in cultivation this year.
The structures are, from left to right, our house, the Big House, the garage and the barn. Yep, it's a huge freakin' barn, almost 100 years old.
Above is a shot of the 40+ squash hills. Three varieties. We're going to be overrun with squash, I hope they sell!
Above is our homemade seed starting station, two sets of plastic shelving with lights and warming mats. Crammed into our 2nd bedroom-cum-office. We have SOOOO many tomato plants - 65 total of three varieties, and 5 varieties to go! I kind of went crazy (look at the top shelf!). We can only grow what will grow well, and at our place we couldn't kill tomatoes if we tried. They grow like crazy and produce like mad.
Unfortunately we have some pretty strong local competition. People around here go nuts for something called the "Ripley" tomato. I can't figure out if it's an actual variety or if it's just tomatoes grown in and around the town of Ripley. There's a festival dedicated to the damned things! I hope some chefs cruise by our market stall and decide to try some of my heirlooms or the more unusual ones (like the white paste tomatoes called Cream Sausage).
And above is what's left of my basil. Roscoe, the Cat from Hell, decided he wanted to sleep in the fragrant plants. He squashed and killed the sweet basil on the left. The Italian basil on the right survived. Yes, I know it needs transplanting. Badly. So does everything else but last week we had six nights in a row in the 40s. The soil (and the air, for that matter) isn't warm enough yet.
I never ever thought I'd find myself wishing for warm weather. Warm weather around here usually means highs in the 90s...and the threat of heatstroke.
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