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Stonewall Farm & Gardens
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Stonewall Farm & Gardens
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May 2008
5/7/08 - Today I picked up the rest of our seed order, and 200 lbs of CockaDoodle Doo organic fertilizer at Fedco. The ground has dried out enough to finish tilling, so I finished up clearing the two new garden beds, and FINALLY got the peas, chard and beets planted. There are still some wet areas on the lower fields, and the creek and spring on the side of the driveway are both still going. I don't think we're going to need to worry about the well running dry this year! The first asparagus of the season is up and I picked enough for us to have our first meal.
5/8/08 - The Walla Walla Onion plants arrived today! I'll have to get them transplanted this weekend. We finished getting everything set up in the "grow room" in the new garage. We have some new 150 watt full spectrum compact fluorescent grow lights and heating mats. Tomorrow will get going with starting all of our seedlings in flats. Between the cold, wet weather and the construction on the new garage everything is late this year.
5/9/08 - Today I got 20 flats of seedlings started - tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, okra, basil, dill, cilantro, squash, beans, broccoli, cabbage, letuce, and artichokes.
Mal and Judy arrived this afternoon for the weekend. It's their 50th wedding anniversary and we're taking them out to dinner at Apollo's Bistro tommor night to celebrate.
5/8/08 - The Walla Walla Onion plants arrived today! I'll have to get them transplanted this weekend. We finished getting everything set up in the "grow room" in the new garage. We have some new 150 watt full spectrum compact fluorescent grow lights and heating mats. Tomorrow will get going with starting all of our seedlings in flats. Between the cold, wet weather and the construction on the new garage everything is late this year.
5/9/08 - Today I got 20 flats of seedlings started - tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, okra, basil, dill, cilantro, squash, beans, broccoli, cabbage, letuce, and artichokes.
Mal and Judy arrived this afternoon for the weekend. It's their 50th wedding anniversary and we're taking them out to dinner at Apollo's Bistro tommor night to celebrate.
5/10/08 - Well, today was a bad day for farm equipment - as I started tilling, the tiller started making an awful noise and then just stopped working. It looks like one of the bearings in the universal joint on the PTO shaft for the tiller seized up and destroyed itself. BUMMER!!! It must have been defective, since this was only the second time I used the tiller. Will have to take it back to Whittemore's on Monday morning to get it replaced. I hope they have it in stock, since the fields REALLY need to be tilled.
And the new wheelbarrow that I got at Sam's Club last week came with a flat tire that wouldn't inflate. I only discovered this after Jeremy and Damon spent over an hour assembling the damn thing. Oh well...just one of those days. On the bright side, we had a wonderful dinner at the Bistro. Keli was happy to see us, and is looking forward to buying lots of fresh veggies from us this year!!
5/11/08 - After a trip down to Augusta to exchange the flat wheelbarrow tire at Sam's Club. we spent the rest of the day getting things ready for a Mother's Day Dinner this evening. We had Mal & Judy, Penny & Ed and Paul & Jesse over and here's the menu we prepared:
And the new wheelbarrow that I got at Sam's Club last week came with a flat tire that wouldn't inflate. I only discovered this after Jeremy and Damon spent over an hour assembling the damn thing. Oh well...just one of those days. On the bright side, we had a wonderful dinner at the Bistro. Keli was happy to see us, and is looking forward to buying lots of fresh veggies from us this year!!
5/11/08 - After a trip down to Augusta to exchange the flat wheelbarrow tire at Sam's Club. we spent the rest of the day getting things ready for a Mother's Day Dinner this evening. We had Mal & Judy, Penny & Ed and Paul & Jesse over and here's the menu we prepared:
Garlic & Herb Semi-soft cheese with crackers
Baby Smoked Clams with toasted baguette slices
Horseradish Hummus with pita wedges
Mustard Pickle
Teriyaki Roasted Salmon with Haricots Verts & Baby Yukon Gold Potatoes
Antipasto Salad (courtesy of Paul & Jesse)
Fresh Asparagus & Cherry Tomatoes with a Balsamic Reduction
Pineapple Upside-Down Cake (courtesy of Penny & Ed)
Baby Smoked Clams with toasted baguette slices
Horseradish Hummus with pita wedges
Mustard Pickle
Teriyaki Roasted Salmon with Haricots Verts & Baby Yukon Gold Potatoes
Antipasto Salad (courtesy of Paul & Jesse)
Fresh Asparagus & Cherry Tomatoes with a Balsamic Reduction
Pineapple Upside-Down Cake (courtesy of Penny & Ed)
Everything was delicious!
5/12/08 - I checked on the seedlings in the grow room and we have germination on lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, cucumbers, squash, and okra after only 72 hours!! I think the new thermostatically controlled heating mats are making a huge difference.
I dropped the PTO drive shaft off at Whittemore's this morning. They agreed that it was defective and replaced the U-joint within a matter of hours. I picked it up on my way back from Augusta and tilled all of the gardens. Tomorrow afternoon I'm going to plant the onions after tilling again.
5/13/08 - This morning I had to water the beets, peas and chard. We haven't had any rain since I planted them last week and the ground looked very dry. The garlic is over a foot tall and going strong.
5/12/08 - I checked on the seedlings in the grow room and we have germination on lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, cucumbers, squash, and okra after only 72 hours!! I think the new thermostatically controlled heating mats are making a huge difference.
I dropped the PTO drive shaft off at Whittemore's this morning. They agreed that it was defective and replaced the U-joint within a matter of hours. I picked it up on my way back from Augusta and tilled all of the gardens. Tomorrow afternoon I'm going to plant the onions after tilling again.
5/13/08 - This morning I had to water the beets, peas and chard. We haven't had any rain since I planted them last week and the ground looked very dry. The garlic is over a foot tall and going strong.
5/15/08 - After only six days, everything in the grow room has sprouted and doing great. The beans and squash are almost 2" tall already!
The peas, beets and chard that I planted a week ago are already up, and we got a second row of onions planted. I got two flats of Calendula and one of Tangerine Gem & Lemon Gem Marigolds started today. I usually plant the Calendula with the tomatoes since it is supposed to repel the tomato hornworm, and recently read that it helps with the asparagus beetle as well. Either way, they look wonderful in the garden and the flowers are edible (as are the marigolds).
5/17/08 - The weather this month has been absolutely gorgeous, but almost NO rain, so I've had to water everything in the gardens on a regular basis. Today I tilled up all of the grassy areas between the asparagus, raspberries and main garden in the East plot. Our original idea of a "semi-ornamental" garden area there proved to be totally impractical, as the witchgrass just kept wanting to grow back into the tilled areas and almost the constant weeding was just too much work. LIVE AND LEARN! Now we have one BIG 100' by 100' garden plot there, which almost doubles the size of our planting area. It's not as pretty, but it's starting to look like a real farm!
5/18/08 - This morning I moved a dozen flats of seedlings outside and set them up on a pallet on top of a few sawhorses. They don't need to be under grow lights any longer, and should be ready to transplant in a couple of weeks.
We decided to turn the original plot next to the barn into a perennial herb garden. I tilled everything under and spread a whole bunch of composted manure. Next week I'll start transplanting and dividing most of the chives, oregano, thyme, sage and mint to the new garden, but will leave enough for a small "kitchen" herb garden closer to the house so I don't have to run down to the barn for fresh herbs in the middle of cooking dinner. This will also give us enough room to plant LOTS of cilantro, which all of our customers have been asking for.
5/19/08 - This morning I started 4 new flats of beans, another flat of okra and one of mixed lettuce. I think I'm the only one who starts beans indoors, but I like to get a jump on the season, and for some reason, when I plant them directly in the soil, some little critter comes along and munches the first true leaves off every single one of them as soon as they're about 2" tall. We haven't had that problem since we began starting them in flats and transplanting them when they're 3-4" tall and have two full sets of leaves on them.
5/24/08 - Today I planted a 25'X 25' plot of Jerusalem Artichokes. Several of our customers have requested them this year, and I was able to get a great deal on a big bag of the tubers at Johnny's. Jeremy gave us a a whole bunch of leftover seed potatoes that he got at Fedco - there are some really cool purple ones as well as some red and yellow fingerlings, so I guess I'll have to find room to plant them. It looks like there are enough to do a couple of 50' rows. I hope we don't get inundated with Potato Beetles!!
5/31/08 - After several weeks of no rain it looks like we're finally going to get a good soaking, which is just what the garden needs.
The peas, beets and chard that I planted a week ago are already up, and we got a second row of onions planted. I got two flats of Calendula and one of Tangerine Gem & Lemon Gem Marigolds started today. I usually plant the Calendula with the tomatoes since it is supposed to repel the tomato hornworm, and recently read that it helps with the asparagus beetle as well. Either way, they look wonderful in the garden and the flowers are edible (as are the marigolds).
5/17/08 - The weather this month has been absolutely gorgeous, but almost NO rain, so I've had to water everything in the gardens on a regular basis. Today I tilled up all of the grassy areas between the asparagus, raspberries and main garden in the East plot. Our original idea of a "semi-ornamental" garden area there proved to be totally impractical, as the witchgrass just kept wanting to grow back into the tilled areas and almost the constant weeding was just too much work. LIVE AND LEARN! Now we have one BIG 100' by 100' garden plot there, which almost doubles the size of our planting area. It's not as pretty, but it's starting to look like a real farm!
5/18/08 - This morning I moved a dozen flats of seedlings outside and set them up on a pallet on top of a few sawhorses. They don't need to be under grow lights any longer, and should be ready to transplant in a couple of weeks.
We decided to turn the original plot next to the barn into a perennial herb garden. I tilled everything under and spread a whole bunch of composted manure. Next week I'll start transplanting and dividing most of the chives, oregano, thyme, sage and mint to the new garden, but will leave enough for a small "kitchen" herb garden closer to the house so I don't have to run down to the barn for fresh herbs in the middle of cooking dinner. This will also give us enough room to plant LOTS of cilantro, which all of our customers have been asking for.
5/19/08 - This morning I started 4 new flats of beans, another flat of okra and one of mixed lettuce. I think I'm the only one who starts beans indoors, but I like to get a jump on the season, and for some reason, when I plant them directly in the soil, some little critter comes along and munches the first true leaves off every single one of them as soon as they're about 2" tall. We haven't had that problem since we began starting them in flats and transplanting them when they're 3-4" tall and have two full sets of leaves on them.
5/24/08 - Today I planted a 25'X 25' plot of Jerusalem Artichokes. Several of our customers have requested them this year, and I was able to get a great deal on a big bag of the tubers at Johnny's. Jeremy gave us a a whole bunch of leftover seed potatoes that he got at Fedco - there are some really cool purple ones as well as some red and yellow fingerlings, so I guess I'll have to find room to plant them. It looks like there are enough to do a couple of 50' rows. I hope we don't get inundated with Potato Beetles!!
5/31/08 - After several weeks of no rain it looks like we're finally going to get a good soaking, which is just what the garden needs.
