Sugar Mountain Farm... worth it!!!!

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I have been following this blog about raising pigs on pasture, which means they are not "artificially" fed, for over 3 years.  The pigs eat grass, hay, and whatever is grown on the farm... not Pig Feed.  Just like Nature intended, before Big Ag started taking over.  They are building an on the farm slaughter house to humanely butcher their animals.  Small butcher shops are becoming a thing of the past as Agribusiness and regulations expand.  That is a whole nuther topic for a nuther time.

This is their Kickstarter Page, and you can watch a video that explains what they are doing on their farm.  This country needs more farmers like the Jefferies, and less Monsanto's.  Click here to read about the project, and support their cause.

Thanks.

We now return to our regularly scheduled blogging.

Ed

More Math...

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Beets are 81% germinated, with germination taking 10 days at 59 degrees
Watermelon radishes are 83% germinated with germination taking 6 days at 59 degrees.  I expected more of these to be above ground by now.  We'll see what the weekend holds.
Daikon radishes are 94% germinated, again taking 6 days, since they are radishes.  All but 1 planted is up.  Pic of the two Daikon squares.

And here is Cecile D. DaDaikons closeup.  Handsome little bugger, ain't he?

But the winner, by far... is the infamous Romanescu.  I don't have pics of them, but we planted 8, and have 9 showing, for 112%.  Must have dropped a seed while planting.  They are tiny lil things.  Linseed Girl is stoked.

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The Math...

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OK... Stuff is popping up.  I was gonna wait for 2 weeks to check germination percentages, but what's a few days.  It'll be 2 weeks on Sunday.  Anyway... going back to my original plan, i realized that i should have planted 16 radishes in each square... Daikon and Watermellon, but I only planted 9.  What to do?  I'm gonna plant inbetween what is above ground.  The plan calls for 16.... dang nabit... we's gonna have 16.  Back to the numbers.

Peas... Germination time at 59 degrees is about 9 days.  I think we've averaged that the past 2 weeks.  It's been 11 days since planting... and 80% are above ground (27 of 36). I'll wait till Sunday, and replant what is missing.  Da peas are rockin'.

Ms. Peabody, are you ready for your closeup?

 And they're not even the winners

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29 degrees...

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Freeze tonight, but no frost predicted... too windy.  Don't have the stillness for the moisture to frost up on the plants.  Don't know if "freeze" will affect buds like a "frost" will.  Hopefully the blooms/fruit buds/flowers will make it thru tonight.  Got home after 9pm and Linseed Girl had already covered the garden, and her seedlings on her patio.

Venus and the crescent moon are the closest I've seen them in years.  Absolutely stunning, and crystal clear tonight.  Wish I could take a pic of it.  Here is a pic from the web.

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The other half...

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Remember the pic from last week, the one where one half of the bed was filled and planted, and the other half was... not?  The project i wanted to get done this weekend was to finish filling the other half and get some plants in it.  It didn't happen, completely.  I wanted to finish filling it with organic material, and not add more vermiculite or peat.  Had a gift card from Lowes, so purchased 6 bags of compost, 3 cow manure, and 3 mushroom.

I sifted it with a sifter i made today, in the cart.  Here's what one bag of each looked like.

As much of a close up as i can get.  Dang that looks purty when sifted.  Spread real nice, no clumps to break up, as they all broke up during the process.  I'll post a pic later, but made the sifter out of 2x4's and 1/2" hardware cloth, and to fit right over the Whizbang Garden Cart.

Now that half of the bed is a little more balanced, with 1/3 if each... vermiculite, peat, and compost.  The next bed is going to be 1/4 vermiculite, 1/4 peat, and 1/2 compost.  I need to find a different source of compost, and buying it by the bag is breaking the bank.

Someone offered me a load of horse manure... hmmmmm.

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A Beeautiful Project...

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Alright, it ain't a masterpiece, but it is my first top bar beehive I've built.  It is the only beehive I've ever built.  It is being donated to the Lancaster County Beekeepers Society to put at the Penn State Extension Farms down the road a bit.  What is a top bar hive, as opposed to the typical box (langstroth) hive.  The latter was designed for optimum honey production, while the former is a more natural state for bees.  This a langstroth hive.

This is my top bar hive.

It is called a top bar because the bees build comb suspended from.... wait for it... top bars. Here is a pic of my numbered bars.  B stands for Brood, which is the term for the various stages of bee development.  H is for honey, the bees stored food.  The honey bars (1 5/8") are a little bit bigger than the brood bars ( 1 3/8").  The bees will draw out their comb a little deeper for honey storage.  In a langstroth hive, all comb is the same size.

Notice the triangle shaped piece of wood on the bar.  That is where the bees will start building, and is sort of a guide for straight comb.  I hope.  I put an observation window in the side so people can see the bees is action.  The roof and bars are off the hive.  It's fascinating to watch them work.

And finally, a pic of what i hope these bars will look like toward the end of summer.

FYI: Nova has an excellent series on bees.  Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Take time to watch it.

And here it is installed at the PSU Extension Farm with the other 2 Langstroth hives.

Now, to install a nuc and watch them build out the comb.  The meeting is out here in May, so that should be fun.

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First of the Ferns...

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Slow easy rain started yesterday, and has been on and off all day today.  We need it.  The lettuce and radishes are looking like sprouts, and not little green dots in the garden.  5 of the 9 Daikon have germinated in one square, waiting for the other 4.  2 of 9 in the other square are showing thru as of this afternoon.  See what tomorrow brings.

Here is a pic of Ferns that were not there yesterday, and are 2-3 inches high today.  Amazing how quick they popped up.

I need to start shooting pics at different angles.  They are all the same shot.  Me standing above and shooting down.  Gotta figure out something else... and maybe need something other than a phone camera.

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I'm a daddy, and it's twins

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The first to emerge was the Daikon radish.  Saw the first one last night after i got home... by flashlight.  (Yes, I check the garden often.)  3 more popped up since this morning, so 4 of the 9 are up.  Look close, and squint. (click on the pic) The red circles are the sprouts, the green checks are the future sprouts.  Notice the nice easy layout of 3 rows of 3.  We did that all ourselves. :-)

Closer View (like you've never seen a sprout before).  Well, scratch the closeup.  Smart phones don't like getting up and personal, i guess.

Here's the other half of the twins.  Mescalin.

Now.  I get home late last night from hanging out with friends (one of which is the only one following this lil blog) to find my baby.  Linseed Girls lights are out, so being the kind neighbor I am, refraim from knocking on her door.

But this morning, at 7:05 I'm a knocking.  First thing out of her mouth... "Did you see we have Mescalin sprouts?"

My garden has a stalker!!!

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Me thinks me's gots a problem...

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I might have messed up my soil mix and used way too much peat moss.  Was reading another blog and she said a 3.8 cubic foot bag of peat will expand into 5-6 cubic feet.  So instead of a third of peat, vermiculite, and compost, i have close to half peat.

Maybe that's why when i water, it only penetrates half an inch (after 15m of watering) and the mix just below is bone dry.

Gonna leave the half bed alone for now, and experiment with the other half this weekend.

Plus, hopefully another big project will be completed this weekend... besides da ongoing roots excavation project.

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It just shouldn't be...

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My shoulder hurts, my elbow hurts, and my right big toe hurts.

Lemme splain, no, lemme sum up. (guess the movie)

I want an asparagus bed.  I got old stuff with old roots in the way.  I cut down the stuff.

Now the roots.  Deep. Thick. Many.  Of course, the first one comes out easy.  Too easy.  See the big hole of fresh dirt... that is where the first set was.  See that big clump of roots just to the left of the big hole of fresh dirt.  Da Bastids.

The second set made up for the first.  How do you dig out roots when all you have is a shovel, and not a backhoe. 

This took me over 2 hours to pull out.  Broken up into 3 different sessions.  I'm fat, old, and out of shape.  The first and third I intend to do something about.  Here are my conquests of the day.  I may even keep them around for inspiration.

Gardening is fun and easy, when there are no roots involved.  Ironic thing is, I can't even pick the asparagus until 2014, that is if I even get it planted this year.

3-4 sets of roots remain.  Oh joy.

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Romanesco...

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Pretty funky. Recipe link

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Filled and Planted (sorta)...

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Filled one of the beds.  Planted over the weekend.  My fill was right out of Mel's book.  1/3 coarse vermiculite, 1/3 peat, and 1/3 various bagged compost.  Remember, this is by volume, not weight.  A 40lb bag of compost is only around 1.5ish cubic feet, while a 4 cubit foot bag is vermiculite weighs next to nothing.

The bed is light and airy, with lots of organic material.  I'm cleaning out beside the barn, where there is a big pile of composted material left from the previous owner.  That is coming into use later with the asparagus and strawberry beds.

I tied the two long ends together with a piece of oak that was treated with the boiled linseed oil to keep them from bowing out over time.  This also allowed me to work half the bed at a time.  I marked my squares using screws spaced 12" apart and white nylon string (that my neighbor (linseed girl) and I spent 2 hours and 3 stores looking for).  Here is a closer shot.

What's planted you are wondering. From top to bottom, and left to right, per square:

• 16 Daikon radishes, 16 Daikon radishes, 9 Detroit Red Beets, 9 Snap Peas
• 16 Watermelon radishes, 16 Watermelon Radishes, 9 Detroit's, 9 Snap Peas
• 9 Spinach, 9 Spinach, 9 Chiaoga Beets, 9 Little Marvel Peas
• Mesculin, Lettuce, <future carrots>, 9 Little Marvel Peas
• Lettuce, Lettuce, <future carrots>, 16 Carrots Short and Sweet
• 2 Romanescu, 2 Romanescu, <future carrot>, 16 Carrots Davers
• 2 Romanescu, 2 Romanescu, <future carrot>, 16 Multicolored carrots

Why so many carrots?  I like carrots, grand kids like carrots, Linseed Girl (her new name) likes carrots, and I bribe my neighbors dog with carrots.

The Romanescu might be a little crowded as it gets bigger.  I've never grown it before, but it is a favorite of Linseed Girl.  I might have to transplant each in it's own square, like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage etc. 

Hope to have the rest of this bed filled soon.  Have broccoli and other stuff that Linseed Girl started from seed.  She is very stoked about this garden.  It's turning into a community garden, which is fine by me.  A friend stopped by while we were planting.  He didn't realize I had a bit of anal compulsion in me (as it related to stringing the squares).  He was very impressed.

Till next time.

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The beds

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Construction was pretty basic.  Wanted them to be a little decorative, so I cut a beam into a 3" square, and notched it with a dado blade.  I put a bevel on the top with a chop saw, then squared up the end of the notch with a chisel.  Offset the notch so there was a little more wood in the inside corner where the sides were screwed in.  Here is a closeup of a corner.

The center posts were done the same way, with an offset to give more meat for the screws to bite into.

And here are the finished beds inthe late afternoon sun.

The wood was pretty dry, so while I was cutting pieces to length, my neighbor was slopping a pretty heavy coat of boiled linseed oil on the planks for rot resistance.  I figure with the cedar, and linseed oil, those beds should last 5-10 years.  If not, I want my money back.  :-)

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Basic design...

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I wanted the design to be easy and simple yet maximizing the space I had.  I live in a small town, but have a nice back yard that previously had a veggie garden.  Decided on two 4x 14 foot beds.  Original design was four 4x8, but figured the space between would better be served growing stuff, instead of a walk way.  Length is always optional, but width is not.  One can easily reach across 2 feet to access the middle of the bed, from either side,  without stepping in the bed itself.  Well, I guess you can make the beds narrower if you choose, or if they are perimeter beds, but no wider.

Materials were salvaged.  My neighbors 100 year old small post and beam barn/garage started leaning heavily to the right.  He tried shoring it up, but it wasn't working.  I walked up the alley one day and he had torn it down.  Lumber and beams were all over the place.  Asked him if he would mind if I took some planks that were laying around.  He said take all you want as he was going to call someone and have it ground into mulch.  Needless to say, I took the best pieces, which ended up being about half the pile.  

The planks were full inch thick, 10 and 12 inches wide, and anywhere from 8 to 16 feet long.  The smallest beam were 3x4.5 inch, which were used as the rafters, up to 8x8 monsters that were the main support.  Lengths varied from 5ft up to 12ft.  I hand carried lumber down the alley for 2 days.  Took a pic toward the end of the first day.

It was all cedar.  :-) 

The beginning...

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The purpose of this blog is to document the progress of my garden using raised beds and intensive planting based on the book "All New Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholomew.

Expect poor grammar, run on sentences, and missed punctuation.  My strong suit was sciences and math, not English.

Thanks and hope you enjoy, learn something, and share what you know.  Lurkers welcome.

H

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