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It's big time planting season now. The seed flats were sown weeks ago, watered, hardened off and every day bring another batch that's ready to go out. And prepping the beds, fighting back the quack grass and working in the clay, can feel like a full time job by itself! But both must happen for there to be veggies and flowers to harvest. So for now, there is not time to enjoy your handywork but just to get busy! There are lots of microgreen growing and the eggs are piling up! Plus, I had so many Ranunculus corms from last year that I stopped pre-sprouting them when I reached 15 trays, so the rest will be available at the Markets and Online. I'll be bagging them up this week and all they need before planting is a few hours to soak in cool water so they can plump up before going into the ground (I'll have planting/care/info cards available too!) Plus, Plus, I'll have some more of my farm-saved seeds available like Delphinium, Columbine, and Bachelor Buttons.  The Tulips keep pushing up and the Daffodils are trying hard to be ready for the first markets! No promises!!!  The fruit trees are in! and just in time for the first little intrepid cherry blossom!  Hella inspected my planting work before she got a little too micro-managey and had to be put inside for the remainder so she could think about how her actions create consequences □ Whenever the nights are clear my lows are usually 10 degrees colder than forecast so hard frosts abound but the plants stay cozy!  The earlier in the day I let the hens out, the wider they roam, even to become wild hens of the woods! I bet the bugs under that leaf litter are super tasty!  The hens also has a little visitor in a little white Ringed Turtle Dove that must have escaped from somewhere as they are a domestic variety. It had a rest day on the farm and then continued on it's merry way!  The Tomatoes have started going into their big beds in the Dragon Dome...  ...even if it means standing room only for the rest of the seed flats. As more go out for planting more keep coming in from the germination attic to make way for the ones I keep seeding, so really I am doing this to myself. #plantlover or #planthorder? or just #farmer?  The hen huts have all been mobilized out on the pasture and get moved about weekly so they get fresh greens and grubs even if I can't let them out an evening. The germination attic is also getting crowded by all the microgreens that are busy growing for the first markets! Pea Shoots, Sunflower Shoots, Basil, Mild Mix, and Spicy Mix will all be available!!!  With planting out comes the web of hoses that I manage day and night. I'll wait a few weeks before setting up the new drip/sprayer irrigation system (hopefully the really hard frosts will be over) but even then I need all these hoses to get the water there! Only I know where they all go and where they all come from mwahahaha Gearing up for the season also means a fresh oil and filter change for my little tractor, Oscar the Grouch, who gets a new attachment once I assemble it. Meet the Cookie Monster aka the Chipper/Shredder! Where to find it all?
The 2021 Market Season starts May 6th!
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In the mountains, the abnormal is normal. At least with weather. So it can be sunny, clear and a bright 75F one day and cloudy, dark, with a cold icy snow and temps in the teens. But no matter, because the plants keep growing, the buds keep opening, and more and more birds return everyday (the Violet Green Swallows are back to nest in the old hollowed out fence post near the field plot)! As a farmer you learn to watch the weather closely and quickly develop that 'weather eye'. Every little change can effect your whole day and rearrange your priorities. And it's always better to plan for the worst but hope for the best. Plants have routinely surprised me at what they can tolerate, survive, and thrive in, but knowing I've given them the best chance with the tools I have helps me sleep a little easier, even if I also sometimes set a few midnight (and 2am and 4am lol) alarms to check the outside temp or the greenhouse temp or both!  It's like Easter everyday!  The end of last week was so warm it was time to take the back vent off the dome so the plants wouldn't roast away as the temps topped 85F in there. On the To Do list this spring is to rebuild the vent so it doesn't require complete demolition each time it's gotta open!  I got some help with the painting. Do you think she knows the panels are for her future pasture-able hut? She is one of the barn hens that longs to follow in her comrades grassy foot steps!  And the other hens get cozy in that same in-progress hut. Maybe they are just inspecting to make sure it's up to code!  The Raspberries went in with a little help from my handy dandy dump cart and some well aged horse manure that's been moved around a few times as the whole pile of it kept being in the way. It's current home is as the hens' favorite hill to climb that is slowly becoming a grassy knoll, but I was able to get some good rich soil by sneaking in underneath! At the end of the weekend it decided to have rain that turned into snow and then froze hard into an icy coating on everything! *crunch, crunch*  After the icy snow was gone we got busy on the new Orchard fence! Posts are in and next we get to put up the wire before I can get my precious test fruit trees in!  The huts have gone mobile!!! And the hens enjoy checking out the old winter pads of their neighbors.  Underneath it's blanket of straw, the Garlic doesn't mind the cold nights and is stretching to the sky!  Hella's favorite time of the days are the lazy (for her) evenings where she can follow me around in the warm sun while I check that everything is set to survive until morning. She's my shadow who enjoys the moments when even she can cast a long shadow! Where to find it all?
Just a few weeks until the 2021 Market Season starts on May 6th! For many of the flower varieties that I grow (and some veggies), it takes weeks and weeks of growing in flats before the little seedlings are ready to be planted outside. Some can be seeded directly into the ground (or require it because they won't tolerate transplanting) but that extra time spent inside gives them a head start. That way they are ahead of the weeds and the weather which is especially important in our short growing season! But all that pampering means a lot of time spent watering, removing their humidity domes and checking their position under the lights, moving them outside, and, most importantly, hardening off. If it isn't done right, it can mean their death as the outside temperatures, winds, and bright sun can freeze them, dry them out, and burn them. And just like raising just-hatched chicks, most of your time is spent monitoring to check that it isn't too cold, too hot, too windy, too bright, or that they aren't too dry or sitting in too much water. But once they are hardened off, they can handle most everything a Montana growing season can throw at them, they just need some spring training first and a helpful coach/farmer!  The seedlings, aka plant babies, get an easy start at life being pampered in a warm attic, under bright leds, in a space that is consistently warm and not windy.  So once they are big and strong, they still need some time to acclimate to temperature shifts, wind, and full uv spectrum sunlight. This means a few hours spent outside each day with increasing frequency until they are not only big and strong but also hardy!  A greenhouse full of hardy seedlings means it's time to get their beds ready for them to move in! This means some quality time spent raking and removing last years stalks and stems that were left to overwinter.  Leaving the landscape fabric down and the skeleton of the low tunnels up saves me a lot of time both setting up and taking down each year. And, leaving the plant material in until spring means I don't need to remove the landscape fabric and tunnel hoops and that the roots of those plants remain in the soil as a home and food for all the soil creatures, which means I see many more earthworms each spring than I do if I stripped it clean in the fall! Happy Soil = Happy Plant  Sometimes when removing spent plant material, you become a non-intentional seed collector! This is the Chinese Forget Me Nots which set seed easily and have seeds that are super grabby to any fabric, hair, or fur.  The hens enjoy their tiny mountain that has become a rodent home, dust bathing center, grub buffet, and grassy knoll. Saturday brought snow flurries then sun, then more flurries, then more sun which meant I got some time to rest while the hens hid inside their huts.  Hella enjoyed the time off by sleeping for an extra 8 hrs with a few yawn breaks  The first special test fruit trees and vines have arrived! 3 different cherries, 2 different asian pears, and a smattering of raspberries. Hopefully they will be able to survive the summer frosts and we'll see over the next few years if they can fruit through those frosts as well! Time will, literally, tell.  Those little trees get to go in the ground just as the native Cottonwoods and my Lilacs are budding out!  And Hella enjoyed the shade in the sun-warmed greenhouse, keeping a close (side) eye on all the plant babies as they get ready for the wide world! Where to find it all?
Everything will be available again when Market Season starts the first week of May! |
AuthorI'm Farmer Megan with a life full of cackles, clucks, quacks, weeds, crazy kitten, and one tiny, senior, blind dog. Archives
December 2021
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