Now we're talking!

Mother Nature has been extremely cruel to the gardens this year...since September I have only recorded one and one-half inches of rain in my rain gauge.  To make matters worse, the wind screeches every single day and night...out of the S/SE, gusting over 20 mph.  Any moisture that finds the ground is immediately blown out.  I saw the local well service guy last weekend...he's anticipating that without a good soaking rain, the acquifer from which I get my well water could be in hazardous condition within 6 months. 

The good news:  for now, the gardens are producing.  Here's a pic from today:

The squash is producing nicely, the cucs have their teepees to vine on and are showing flowers, the peppers are putting on, and the beans are blooming and little tiny beans and black-eyed peas are making.  I just pulled the cream peas (only got 2 small portions as I expected...they don't do as well as I might hope...I don't think they like the heat) and replanted that area with more black-eyes.

The big tomatoes are doing well, although I am concerned about blossom drop on the top sets...I've been studying the possible causes and have decided that it's the wind's fault...like I said it blows day and night, hard.  The temperatures have been swinging too...just last week it was down in the mid-50's at night, upper 80's during the day.  Added to that is the fact that are loads of fruit on the lower portion of each plant.  So I think that all the energy the plants have are going to the fruit and what little energy reaches the upper parts of the plants isn't enough to keep the blooms going in the wind.  Just in case, I'm starting some new babies in the greenhouse...if we can't overcome the blossom drop in the next few weeks, once the fruit ripens I'll pull the plants and replant later in the summer for fall tomatoes.  Playing it by ear for now.

The most amazing thing in the garden, to me, is the corn.  I've seen miles of corn growing in fields all my life but I have never paid attention to how the ears come about.  So watching it up close has been a real education, and makes me thankful to be witness to a real wonder of nature.  Here's how it goes...first, the plants come up with these great wonderful, broad leaves.  Before you know it, out of the top comes this big flower, with one part that stands straight up (the male?) and 8-10 smaller ones hanging around it (females?).  Once the flowers got up high, the bees went nuts, crawling and slurping the pollens which then fall into the base of the big leaves..that's when the lottery occurs. 

If properly pollinated by my flying buddies and enough water and food in the plants themselves, the next thing you see is picture to the left. The tassles start growing right in the crevice between leaf and stalk.

 And before you know it:  An Ear O Corn!

                   AMAZING!












Now if I can keep the critters away!

Finally!

Spring!  What a glorious way to start Spring 2011, with a SuperMoon:

 14% Larger, 30% Brighter, and it was here at the Rancho, until those pesky clouds moved in to block the shine!  Ah, well, Mr. Froggie was a-croakin' through it all!

That's him (or her...hard to tell!) in his garden trough.  There are 3 who survived an inch and a half of ice on top of the trough during the Winter.  They regularly warm up nowadays, and it absolutely drives my cat, Sgt. Preston, bonkers!

The planting is done for the most part.  Here are two photos of how the gardens look today.  First up, the new extension, tomatoes at the top, creams peas poking out, peppers surrounded by their cut-worm shields, and soaker hoses ready.  It should be fun to watch it change over the next couple of months.

And this photo is the raised bed garden that yielded such a fine harvest last year:

1015 onions in foreground, 2nd bed is baby swiss chard, more onions, and that delicious bulb garlic!  Spinach in the third, along with some hardy strawberry plants that are starting to put on flowers...can hardly wait!  And in the 4th bed, at the back, is the swiss chard, kale, brussell sprouts, and hopefully (fingers crossed), horseradish by the end of the summer.

Note:  I never pretended to be a photographer...but a snap shot artist for sure!

So with Spring springing, we're ready set go for the best food anywhere!

Harper Harvest

It's planting time!  The new garden extension is finished, the fence is up, the soaker hoses are out and the little plants are coming up.  There's a chilly night expected tonight and I've covered the tomato plants but so far, everything's looking great for a good Spring and harvests to come.

Here's how it's looking:

All the prairie grasses are still brown (no rain), and the trees haven't started to bud out yet.  The lack of rain out here is really going to make growing difficult, and there won't be any wildflowers to speak of this year either.  But soldier on we must!  I have a well, the water is tasty-good and cold, and last year's crop seemed to like it!

The Schedule of Harvests:

APRIL:

Spinach - lucious dark green leaves
Swiss Chard - Bright Lights - colorful and delicious
Radishes - if you haven't had a radish straight out of the garden, you haven't really ever had a radish!
1015 Onions - yummy!
Mesclun Mix - a wonderful mixture of 7 garden greens:  endive, red kale, argula, red and green romaine and Salad Bowl and Lolla Rossa lettuce
Herbs including Italian Basil, Parsley and Cilantro (make a pesto and freeze in ice cube trays for later); Chives
Flowers - Red Amaryllis, Alyssum, Hummingbird Sage, Sedum (2 varieties-ground covers which need no attention)

MAY:

Garlic - a wonderful, mild bulb garlic developed by the Aggies
Cream Peas - fresh or frozen for later
Tomatoes -  Big Beefies, Big Boys, and heirloom red and yellow pears (you can eat 'em like chips!)
Mesclun Mix
Swiss Chard
Shallots and 1015 Onions
Radishes
Green Beans
Herbs - Dill, Lemon Grass and Thai Basil (this is a new one for me-can't wait to try it)
Flowers - Vines including Queen's Crown (Grandmother's favorite) and Cardinal Climbers (a beautiful red trumpet shaped flower that self-seeds); Red Gomphrena
Blue Fescue Grass, Pink Paint Brush Grass - each more beautiful as the season progresses

JUNE:

More and more tomatoes - as above, and new this month, yellow grape
Yellow crookneck squash
Slicing cucumbers
Lima, Black, Green and Snap Beans
Peppers - Jalepenos and Serranos, Flavorburst Bells (yellow, gold and lime green), Sweet Bananas
Red, White and Yellow Onions (have you tried them on the grill yet?)
Flowers - Pride of Barbados (young 'uns but give them a year and you'll want more)

JULY:

Tomatoes
Squash
Cucumbers
Black eyed Peas
More Beans
More Peppers - Poblanos possibly!
Bi-color Corn on the Cob!!!


One note:  Mother Nature is in control of the Harper Harvests!  I'm just the helper so the schedule above is our plan but I must reserve Mother Nature's right to change things up. 

30 19'28"N, 99 21'19"W

That's our location on the globe!  On the western side of the Texas Hill Country, just on the edge of the high desert further to the west.  So not as humid as 90 miles to the east, in Austin, but not quite desert dry.  But, like everywhere in Texas right now, we're being affected by the La Nina in the Pacific Ocean:  milder winter weather and no rain.  Mother Nature isn't being kind in the rainfall category.

The last 2 weeks have been anything but mild.  There was a 72-hour period where we didn't get above freezing and on the last day, snow fell.  Then, after a nice weekend, we sank back into the deep freeze and yesterday had freezing rain, sleet, then snow again.  The snow was just a dusting, and my outdoor thermometer got above freezing during the afternoon so most of the white stuff melted away.

The 72-hour storm created some problems for the gardening side of my life, besides causing a bad case of cabin fever.  My little plastic covered greenhouse took a hit from all the things flying around when it blew in on 60 mph wind gusts.  In fact, I found the stick that hit the side of the greenhouse which opened a hole and by first light the next morning, put all the seedlings and young transplants in big jeopardy of freezing.  The tomato and pepper seedlings survived the storm because they were directly under the grow lights but the amaryllis and arrowhead ivys took a hit before I could get them in the house.  I had hoped to have the amaryllis blooming by Valentine's Day but the cold has set them back...they'll be lovely in a week or so because after today, we're going to be warming up.  I got the greenhouse fixed so everybody is going back to their warm home this weekend!  I heard one of the weathermen in Austin say on last night's news that last night should be the last "frigid" night for this Winter...we can only hope!

So, it's time to get busy.  I'm going to looking for 10 brave souls who want to participate in my first Harper Harvest subscription service.  The plan is to offer a 4-month subscription for $50/month, starting April through July.  The subscription will include regular deliveries of whatever is coming in, including blooming annuals and perennials, herbs, and of course, produce.  The harvest will change as the growing season progresses, starting with 10-15 onions, spinach, brussell sprouts, kale, swiss chard, amaryllis, ground-cover sedums, and a wonderful salad mix that includes endive, arugala, and various long-leaf lettuces.  Next up will be the tomatoes (Big Beefs, yellow and red pears, and a yellow grape), peppers (bell, jalepeno, serrano, poblano), peas (early blondies then blackeyes), beans (green, black, purple, limas), radishes (red & white), slicing cucumbers, yellow crookneck squash, and 3 varieties of onion (red, yellow, white).  I love growing herbs too, so chives, parsley, cilantro, dill, and a delicious bulb garlic (there are so many ways to use this mild garlic).  I'm planting some fun new grasses for landscaping, and a black coleus that is very striking and would look great in a flowerbed.  And if all goes well, I'm very excited about the possibility of fresh bi-color corn (!) ,sweet potatoes and horseradish before fall!  There's fresh eggs (not my chickens!) and other veggies that will be coming in from Harper neighbors and as the season progresses, we'll be prepping and canning so there will all kinds of wonderful things coming from the ground.  So much to look forward to, sharing with the harvests with a group of friends.  How nice.
The new garden extension is looking good and I'm about ready to make the rows and cover with black plastic to warm it up.  The posts are up, the gate's in place, and the fencing material is ready to go...there is a white-tail deer herd that would love nothing better than to get into it so before the plants go in, the fence goes up!  Here's hoping the weather improves and warms...the sun is certainly climbing so it won't be long!

Make a Joyful Noise!

Today was 2 seconds longer than yesterday!  YES!  The next 6 months are my favorite times of the year...the days will be getting longer, and warmer!  Eventually warmer...so much to look forward to on the Rancho.

I probably should subtitle this post "Making Dirt."  I've been working steadily on the expansion, turning it over and adding to it in order to fluff it up.  I formed up 15 rows, still picking out rocks as I went.  Then, using a 2 x 6 board, I formed a smaller trench in each row, filled that with sand and then recovered.  The oaks have given up some of their rotting leaves, sticks, and bark...all that lovely compost that literally covers huge areas under the 100s of oaks on the Rancho.  All I have to do to get to it is move this year's fallen leaves which are really lightweight (no rain to make 'em heavy!)  Every other trench between the rows was filled with this good stuff (probably 3-4" deep and 4-6" wide).

Here's a picture of the rows:

Once I got all that done, I spent several days watering it down.  The weather has been wonderful, sunny skies, breezy and warmer than normal temps.  But, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, NO RAIN.  The counties in the area have posted burn bans (Kimble County not so much!) but it doesn't take a genius to figure out that burning would be a really stupid idea.  The prairie grasses rustle in the wind, it's all extremely brittle and a tenderbox.

The last couple of days I've spent going back through and turning all of these new additions over into the gumbo/manure mixture.  It's almost like having a giant compost pile!  I'm really happy with where it's at...very few clods, the manure is breaking down nicely, and it's definitely fluffier.  My spading fork was going all the way in so it's a good 8" deep...so far.  My thinking is that I need to do the same thing twice more before spring...more sand, more gifts from the trees!  By then all the goodies in the pallet compost piles will be ready to add as I begin the planting.

Here's the better news:  The forecast calls for the possibility of rain in the next couple of days.  Okay, okay, it's only 30% chance tomorrow, up to 60% Friday, but hey, it's a chance and better odds than we've had since TS Hermine came through back in September.  For real, that was the last rain of any consequence this part of the Hill Country has had.  And we got less than areas east of here got at the time (Austin had some flooding problems during Hermine...Austin is 90 miles east on the same latitude as the Rancho).  So fingers crossed.  If it does (notice I'm still in the "if" stage), I'll be able to see if a crust forms on the top layer of the augmented dirt.  I'd be pleasantly surprised if it doesn't form a crust.

So now we wait.  With the possibility of rain comes some really cold weather.  Christmas is this Saturday and it's not supposed to get out of the 40s...yuck.  I've got movies to watch (especially my most fav A Christmas Story!) and I'm babying some seeds that I'm trying to get to sprout.  I'm planning to pick some spinach tomorrow to have with the asparagus and turkey breast I'm planning for my Christmas dinner.  Yummy!

I referred in my first post to my friends' restaurant in Austin.  It's called Zandunga.  I heard back from Christina about their impression of my greens.  Here's what she said:

       "We tasted your greens today and they were amazing! We tasted them against the ones we buy now and it was night and day. We would love to buy our greens from you and possibly put your greens on our menu as local organic farm...Thank you so much and we look forward to enjoying more of your great greens!"

It's the freshness factor, not anything I did.  But it sure is nice to hear!

Hope everyone saw the total lunar eclipse the other night...we did!  I didn't watch the whole thing but when I turned out the lights to go to sleep, the full moon lit up the Rancho!  But when the alarm went off at 2;30 a.m. it was dark so I knew even before lookin' that something had happened to the big spotlight!  Sure nuff, directly overhead was an orange globe with dark spots and the Milky Way was thick.  There was an owl hootin' in the little oaks out front of the house and it was warm enough to look up for a little while.  But back to bed I went, and then sometime before dawn I rolled over and looked out my windows...the spotlight was back and was setting which cast such a shadow on the edge of the house, I thought I'd left the back porch light on...too cool.

Happy Holidays!  Make a joyful noise!

It's a New Day!

Welcome to our blog.  It's a new day in the Hill Country of Texas but we need rain!  I've started this blog to track our farming (or maybe a should say gardening since we're small).  The first year was a success, I fed neighbors, co-workers and friends besides myself and learned a little about freezing and canning.  It's such a joy that I want to do more.  So, I've recently started an expansion of the gardening area.

Last year, I built 4 raised beds and successfully harvested beans, peas, okra, onions, yellow squash, slicing cucumbers and lots and lots of tomatoes, especially heirloom red and yellow pear tomatoes.  Here it is in all it's glory:

And here's one day's harvest:

The expansion will not be raised so I've spent the last 6 weeks digging out the rocks (limestone and flintrock) down to a depth of 6 inches.  I started here:

There's a dry creek bed (an "arroyo") on the property that is surrounded by all kinds of oak trees and is therefore loaded with what I lovingly refer to as "compost in the making."  So far I've added 9 20-lb. bags of this compost to the new area as well as a pickup bed load of horse manure (can you see the difference?)

The locals refer to our dirt as gumbo...it's black clay which has to be augmented and supplemented in a big way in order to make it workable.  I've got 2 compost piles made from wooden pallets and these supplied more than enough compost for last year's beds.  I'm going to have to keep them working in a big way this year in order to have enough for both gardening areas.  So bear with me as I work to make the new area ready for spring. 

The raised beds have beets, mesclun mix, spinach, kale, and brussel sprouts for harvesting over the winter.  Just today I picked a gallon of mesclun, and a quart each of spinach and kale which I am taking to my friends in Austin who have a wonderful new restaurant on East 11th Street...I can't remember the name but it's a Mexican Bistro with a full service bar.  Hopefully they'll be able to incorporate my harvest into their menu...sharing the harvest is the best part of the work involved!