Quail

 I mentioned them in the last post but didn't show off any of my pretty babies...  Currently in the back yard are two "breeding units" ie 4 to 6 girls and 1 boy per cage.  My standard size quail are in one section of the green double cage.  That groups is 3 girls from our first set of hatching eggs from Colorado breeders, a beautiful Andalusian/silver male and one unsexed tuxedo hatched from some of Monica's eggs.  

This is Pretty Boy my beautiful Andalusian male. 

And these two are girls from our first hatch. The greyish one is Fee and the bright colored one is Amber. 

Another shot of Amber this time with Pretty Girl who is also from our first hatch.   Yall can see why I got intrigued by their colors... 

I need to get some good photos of my Jumbos so they will get a post of their own later. 

Successes, failures, and new beginnings 2025

 I am loving the Greenstalk vertical planters.  We are now up to 5 in the "tree yard". We successfully grew potatoes, pepper, cucumbers, beans, and of course tomatoes in them this year.  We didn't use all the tiers for our towers as that made them taller then I could easily reach to fill the water reservoir.  That means we have extra tiers that we filled and used as planters.   This year it was squash in them, next year will be potatoes and my squash will move to the front yard planters. 

Front yard did okay for potatoes but my tomatoes didn't really do well.  They neither grew well nor produced well.  Time to move them to another area or try something different for the seedlings.  

 What was exciting and very interesting to me were the three direct sown tomato plants I had.  We were eating cherry tomatoes off them and I even have a few held back for seeds!   Their breeder is in Montana and is working on developing tomatoes that can be direct sown in their climate that will produce usable tomatoes before winter kills them.    That experiment will be tried again in spring with my seeds and other varieties from him. ... 

I had ordered trees from Starks Bros and they kept changing the shipping date as I slowly watched the planting window get smaller and smaller.  After the last change that would have had them here AFTER the planting window I contacted them and canceled the order.  IF I order or buy trees again I will spend the funds at either Fedco or locally...  but honestly I am about ready to give up on them especially since I umm sorta took over their growing area with my new beginning project. 

New Beginnings this year

We have quail!!!!  Yes after many years of  no small animals we once again have something small and cute living in the backyard.  I have been learning from Monica how to care for them and then this fall I picked up hatching eggs from breeders in Colorado.  That first 2 dozen were incubated and brooded by Monica with plans for them to move here asap once outside...  That didn't happen as we didn't get cages built, and didn't get cages built, and still no cage even started.   Not for lack of effort and planning on my part but rather Toli was like yes tomorrow but tomorrow never came.  So when I brought home my first jumbo sized quail TWO WEEKS after the original pick up date Toli threw a fit.  And got to work making HIS version of my plans.  Nope not what I wanted but they will hold quail but the doors are too small and it makes tending them a royal PITA.   But it was a double cage so now I had room for my lovely jumbo breeding unit and for the three ladies we had kept back from the first hatch plus their new boyfriend from the same breeder as my jumbo breeding unit.  You can see that cage in the background of this photo.

 And yes that is a second cage being built.  It is a larger single cage to use as a grow out pen for future hatches as I now have an incubator and are hatching eggs to see what kind of pretty colors I can get.  Any chicks that don't remain here have homes lined up already so I am having fun.   Turns out these little birds come in sooo many different colors then the plain brown birds my jumbos are.  AND I can get hatching eggs that should produce jumbo size birds in some of the fancy colors... 

Spring is coming...

 Sunchokes, trying these again after the total failure last time.  These however came from Joseph Lofthouse and are part of his landrace project.  The box arrived yesterday and wow is it full! He claims the box has at least 10 different varieties in it and I believe him.  They will get split between my house and a friends house.  A few in the box were already producing green sprouts so those will go in a pot for now.

 Also in the box were a few "walking onions" that actually looked a lot  like shallot or potato onion bulbs.  One of those clusters went into my "onion bed" which also have bottle onions, other walking onion varieties and an elephant garlic plant.  

Apple trees are coming to replace the two we lost last spring.  This time they are a SnowSweet and a Starkrimson Red Delicious.   The serviceberry has survived the winter and we really need to figure out where it will live.  

More strawberries are in my plans but this time they are all Alpines and wild species started from seeds so need to see how that works for us. 

Ashley and I have reconnected thanks to a family meal with her sister who had come up from Georgia for a visit.  Turns out she still remembers all my different colored tomatoes and wanted to know if I was still growing them.  She and her DH have offered to help in the garden and I will help with their small area they have.   It should be fun. 

Tomato list has been modified a bit to really show off the varied foliage and tomato types  for the kids.  Currently in my seed starters waiting to be transplanted into cups are 14 varieties of tomatoes

1. Urbikany - these were a very pleasant surprise.  I found a 20 year old packet of seeds. I put them in a damp towel until they showed signs of life then planted them into a seed starter. Out of the 10 seeds in the packet I have 5 strongly growing seedlings and one late seedling that is just now coming up.  This is a normal leaf det plant with red tomatoes used for both eating fresh and canning
2. Cherokee Tiger - these seeds were from the MMMM Swap and labeled as being collected in 2017 so 8 years old.  I only started 5 using the same method for the Urbikany.  So far I have two nice seedlings one the proper chartreuse color and one with normal colored leaves. I am growing this dwarf to show off the chartreuse color so will only pot on the chartreuse colored tomatoes.
3. Fuzzy Wuzzy - another grown for the foliage which is fuzzy this dwarf has slightly fuzzy yellow and red torpedo-shaped with pointed ends.
4. Shadow Boxing - another odd one I am growing to show the kids. This one is a dwarf tomato that has antho in both the leaves and the tomatoes.  So there is a dark purple to near black over lay on the red tomatoes and dark leaves with a bit of a purple over tone.
5. Dark Stripe Micro - despite the name this is a dwarf not a micro dwarf. It is a multiflora which means it produces large  clusters of flowers that turn into a large number of cherry size tomatoes. This one makes lots of dark tomatoes with metallic green stripes. 
6. White Zinger - a dwarf plant making pale yellow/white elongated odd shaped tomatoes. Being grown for the color and shape of the tomatoes
7. Spanish Dancer - is a trailing or hanging basket tomato.  It makes torpedo shaped yellow and red striped large cherry tomatoes.
8. Elf Tears - my second trailing or hanging basket tomato.  This one make dusty pink tear drop shaped cherry size tomatoes
9. Whippersnapper- my third trailing or hanging basket tomato.  This fairly common tomato makes plain red round cherries. 
10. Big Hill - A normal leaf det plant this one makes large bicolor (red orange and yellow swirls) with a sweet fruity flavor when at their best.  Can be bland and badly cat faced in bad years.
11. Blaue Kasachstan - the seed is from 2020 and had poor germination but I do have one seedlings that is doing well. This is an indet plant that needs a trellis and makes medium to large size dark colored tomatoes. 
12. . Dark Orange Muscat - is also an indet plant which will need a trellis.  This one is a cherry that is an odd dark orange with and interesting flavor.   
13. Northern Lights - my third indet tomato for this year.  It produces medium sized round slicer bi colors great for fresh eating.
14. Russian Saskatchewan - This one is an interesting Canadian heirloom.  It makes red saladette to slicer size tomatoes and is under 20 inches tall.   

Long time no write

 Another spring is approaching and we did have some successes with our plans for last year. 

While the dogs continue to run rampant over my improved soil I did manage to get a small square fenced in OUTSIDE that area.  So instead of my well fenced improved area I have a 15 by 15 ft square of unimproved soil.  The three trees I ordered were planted inside that small area and I have the room around them.  Nope it is not the plan I have envisioned but it it what I got.  Two of the apple trees didn't survive our spring/summer weather but one was doing well before winter... 

One thing that did work out MUCH better then I expected was the Greenstalk.  We have two set up in the tree yard.  They are on each side of the gate so easy to harvest.  They will be even easier when we get the spinning bases installed. Honestly I love these which is why I have bought 2 more that we will set up in the spring.  This one had strawberries, tomatoes, nasturtiums, peppers, and baby bok choy all in a 2 ft square space.  Yep love um but make sure that is good quality potting soil you fill them with. 

The other stalk had beans, lettuce, and tomatoes in it.  The concrete pad is actually a large stepping stone and was used to ensure the Greenstalks had a level base so the watering system inside would work properly.  

The two new ones will be set along the fence and yes will have the spinner bases also.  One is a pale bright green, the other is a deep red violet. I can hardly wait for spring to get them in place. 

While I lost at least of 2 of my 3 trees I am not too badly upset.  I am hoping the other tree will survive our winter and start growing with vigor in spring.  If it does I will get another tree to provide pollination for it and see what happens. 

There is a lot of open space inside the small fence but most of the soil is totally compacted and hard to dig or even for weeds to grow in.  I have two plans for the area.   One is to toss out root crops and see if any takes and can survive that area to help break up the soil a big.   I am also planning on using that open space for Squash.   I have a vining type summer squash landrace that needs room to sprawl.  IF It is happy to grow in that dirt it could be a nice soil cover and later a chop and drop plant when winter gets here.   I may also try a couple of hills of bush winter squash giving each about a 3 sq foot sq space to sprawl and grow happily but I have a feeling I will need to fertilize and give them a bit of care to get them going and staying happy

The Greenstalks will have beans, lettuce, bok choy, strawberries, and some mini tomatoes,  PLUS whatever we need room for ....  

Potatoes in the front yard, corn near the squash even if that is icky dirt...  Tomatoes, greens, and root crops in the metal beds. 

Spring is coming...

 It is still very early in the gardening season here so you can imagine my pleasure when I spotted 3 plants up from the  Catawissa walking onion topsets I was gifted this past fall.  This is one of three places I planted them so there is now hope that some more will pop in in those beds.  And now I need to check the beds that I put garlic bulbils into at the same time... 

We managed to get over to the city compost facility and have the back of the truck filled with compost to work into the garden in the back yard this weekend IF the weather lets us.  They are calling for snow showers and/or "breezy" weather that translates to only 10 to 15 mph steady but some gusts could be as high as 30 mph...    I still need the topsoil/compost blend the city sales but they were out and can't make more until the winds let up...  So I will be calling daily to see if they have managed to make some (the high winds affect their ability to use their machines to make the blend).   That is what will go in the lovely metal beds so we can use all of them this year. 

My apple trees for the back yard will be shipped sometimes in the next 7 days so we need to get their space ready for them.   And also a place for the serviceberry bush that will be in the box with them.   

Seed potatoes are here and have been set out to chit, potato seeds are sprouting, and I will be starting to harden off my seedlings which include tomatoes, peppers (both sweet and hot) brussels sprouts, marigolds, rosemary, and a single baby rhubarb plant from the one seed I found :).

New information and new plans...

 I recently stumbled over a video on putting in a Grocery Row Garden that sent me hunting for more and more information.  

Upshot of all this hunting was me buying two kindle books "Grocery Row Gardening" by David the Good and "Grow a Little Fruit Tree" by Ann Ralph.   

Seriously look the videos up they are really interesting.  Now mind you David the Good does say this is more an idea then a proven concept as most of them are currently in the southern part of the US.  So in a more ways then one we will be breaking new ground and adding to the information about this style of gardening but everything he does makes such perfect sense. 

In his system the beds are 4 ft wide with 3 ft walkways between them.  You include small fruit trees (hence the book on growing little fruit trees) and bushes or cane fruit IN THE BEDS in fairly specific places then plant around them... producing a garden that does double duty as annual veggie garden and as a very small orchard.    LOVE this idea and Toli loves the idea of growing his own fruit...  

When it warms up we will go out and measure out the place I am thinking of converting to this method and hmm maybe a single row in the front yard...   

It is still winter so garden dreams abound, check back in a few months to see what really happened. 

What was I thinking?

 I have spent the last few years learning about permaculture and land races and other not quite mainstream gardening ways.  And I have been learning a whole new language and way of thinking about growing vegetables.    

So this year I took the plunge and got some of these grexes, landraces, and some packets of  seed mixes that are all the same species.  The thing with all of these type of seed is to plant as many as you have room for, select the ones that do the best in your garden to save seeds from.  Of course for most of us taste is as important as how well it grew.  So this is a very different type of seed saving then I have been  doing for my tomatoes.  And really does take a huge shift in attitudes to be able to go yep that makes sense.  

For this year I have 

From Going to Seed:

Kale - blend of seeds from gardeners all over. 

Corn - blend of seeds from gardeners all over

Potato seeds (yes they can make seeds) - blend of seed from gardeners all over

Summer Squash mix - lots of different types of pepo and some hybrids with other types of squash. This should be interesting to grow out. 

From the Experimental Farm Network:

Maxidiwiac' (Buffalo Bird Woman) Summer Squash - a mostly bush squash breeding population that has been selected for squash that you can dry for winter use. 

Maggie x Provider' Bush Bean Breeding Mix - this is a breeding population of a string bean and stringless snap bean.   The eventual goal is to find a pink podded snap bean with no string. 

Wild Garden Chicory mix - this is for a friend to help give her some fresh flavors in her salads.

From Wild Mountain Seeds

Speedy Dry Bean Grex - grown on the Western Slope at over 7000 ft altitude so should work well here. 

Ping Tong shaped Grex - this is an eggplant grex that produces long thin eggplants that should grow here.  Looking forward to some fresh eggplant.,

Plus I got a couple of their tomato varieties they have been developing to grow in their growing conditions. 

From Quail Seeds

Vibrant Joy Bok Choy Mix 

Cottagers Kale

And sigh I have no idea where I am going to put all these things PLUS my tomatoes and flowers.  

Wonder how many of my friends and family will let me grow things at there place... 

New year new dreams and hopes

 Those metal beds from last year are looking very pretty but many still need bales of dirt and compost in them.  Of course the bottom half in most of them is filled with wood chips which mean we are only putting about 6 to 10 inches of dirt in any of them.  We will need to top them off each year for a while the chips breakdown and settle but still saved us lots of funds for now.  As you can see those beds have made  huge change in our yard. 

The square bed to the right will have corn in it this year.  There is a smaller round bed to the left that will hold squash bushes.  My tall blue one will have trailing vines and hanging basket tomatoes.  That leaves me four 3 by 6 ft beds for my tomatoes and beans.  We are talking about putting an arch over the sidewalk and putting pole beans and scarlet runner beans in there with lettuce and greens on the side away from the sidewalk. 

 I am limiting my tomato plants this year and most will be dwarfs which don't need staking  I will have 3 vining tomatoes, Velvet Red a fuzzy red cherry, Marbled Mystery a bi color tomato and something called Extravagante Rouffiange a fuzzy brown with green stripes from Belgium.  

The dwarfs will be Dwarf Mandurang Moon an ivory/white cherry. Wooly Kate an indet dwarf with fuzzy yellow tomatoes with  blueberry colored shoulders,  Gandalf a bi color dwarf with yummy heart shaped tomatoes (late but very prolific) and probably Large Barred Boar or similar large fruited tomato.   Hmm what was I saying about limiting my tomatoes...  I count 7 varieties and those are the outside tomatoes...  I do hope to have a lot of my little micro dwarfs in the 1 to 3 gallon grow bags scattered around the yard.

Garden 2023? well maybe....

 The front yard is looking pretty with all the new, still need to be filled metal beds... back garden is cleaned up but the fence is still not fixed  so I keep having to let Lani out as she can get into but not out of the garden area.  LOL She reminds me of Jazz when she was still very little and could go through the holes in the fence wire but couldn't figure out how to get back out the same way.   Of course little Duchess knows how to got both into and out of the garden through the fence... 

However the potatoes and onions have been sitting in the house for a few weeks now waiting for those beds to get ready. Last week I picked up a few seedlings from the Fort Collins Nursery and from the local Master Gardeners plant sale which means I have 7 tomato plants and 7 cauliflower seedlings to get into the ground also.

Then this weekend Makaila was over and climbed over piles of things to reach my seed starters for me and I managed to clear a path to my growing table so while they are 2 months late I did get some tomato and pepper seeds planted.  Now comes the wait to see how many of those make it outside but I still have until June right?

Peas...

 While looking for information on something else I discovered that pea seeds don't have the same longevity as tomato seeds.  In fact 3 years is about what most folks say... and looking at my pea seeds from the swap I realized I really needed to test the germination and get to growing them.   I have 3 types.  Dark Seeded Early Perfection from 2016,  Thomas Laxton from 2017 and Salmon Flowered Crown Pea from 2018.  

I let my peas soak over night then moved them to damp paper towels to see how many would germinate.  My loser was Salmon Flowered Crown Pea with only 4 of the 20 seeds germinating. :( Of course this was the variety I wanted to raise the most.   Dark Seeded Early Perfection had 7 of 11 seeds germinate. Thomas Laxton blew me away.  All eleven of the seeds I had germinated! Looks like I need a bigger pea patch... 

I still need to go though my beans and see if there are any that really need grown out but mostly I am looking at fresh seeds that have properties I want to put into my bean collection.  Like a fast, tasty, productive dry bean...  

First potting up day for this year...

 And I am pleased with most of my numbers...  Normal procedure for me is to plant 3 pellets with 2 to 3 seeds per pellet.  Move the seedlings to a cup soon after they show signs of growing a real leaf...  

This year I am not sure what I was thinking but Big Hill was planted in 6 pellets as was Micro Tom Gold.... and then there was Lucinda OMG I don't know what I was thinking but I planted 12 pellets with the seeds for this variety and have ended up with a large number of these to hand out...  Lucky me these may go as a novelty as they are carrot leafed and very distinctive.  Also very distinctive is the bright green of the Cherokee Tiger Black.  This one also was planted in 6 pellets and I ended up with 9 plants.  

Sadly there were a few failures...  Melon Ball only gave me one seedling out of the 6 seeds planted.  Large Barred Boar has not come up at all but I will give it a bit more time... and some varieties I really wanted to plant got misplaced and started very late 

I may be slow but some of those tomatoes aren't!

 Micro Tina was planted either 24/4/2022 or 25/4/2022 and today 29/4/2022 I have at least one seedling!  Kilimanjaro marigolds planted in the same time frame are also up and I can see signs of life in the Teddy Steak and Teddy Globe peat pellets...  

Of course I still have a few pellets that are open and I am trying to decide which greens I want to get an early start on or should I do more tomatoes... 

  

2022 garden is off to a slow start...

 I have lacked the energy to do much so everything is either not getting done or as I am slowly gaining energy some things are getting done late.

The last 3 days I have been getting my tomato seeds planted into starters.  That is about a month late so I dumped most mid season varieties and tried to stick with early season.  I still ended up with 18 varieties in the seed starters. 

Indeterminate 

1. Black Cherry - early/mid brown cherry

2. Zluta Kytice-  mid season multiflora yellow

3. Large Barred Boar - early/mid brown green stripes 

Determinate 

1. Melon Ball - white regular leaf midseason

2. Dwarf Artic Rose - 60 days seeds back

3. Fuzzy Wuzzy - dwarf bi color fuzzy early 

4. Utyonok - orange dwarf early

5. Puck - red -determinate 55 days

6. Northern Light - red determinate 55 days

7. Silvery Fir Tree - red carrot leaf early

8. Cherokee Tiger Black - purple green stripes chartreuse foliage

9. Lucinda - green on green strip carrot leaf

10. Big Hill - bi color big flowers

These two varieties were selected out of Big Boy and Better Boy, by a TomatoJunction member. 

1. Teddy Steak

2. Teddy Globe 

Hanging Basket Tomatoes

1. Pendulina Orange

2. Shimofuri 

3. Ladyfingers

I also got some Thai Lavender Frog Egg eggplant seeds and some flower seeds but still have some open spaces I need to fill up... 

We got our onions and potatoes about 2 weeks ago as well as a sunchokes and  horseradish roots for growing.  Stuck the horseradish in a pot and hope it is fine there.  The sunchoke roots went outside in planters and yep blasted squirrels dug them up and munched on them.  So no more sunchokes for me...  The horseradish is inside. 

Today I planted some of the onions spacing some for green onions and some for bulbs.  I still have about 20 onions to plant soon but ran out of get up and go. 

The potatoes are sitting in the light chitting but will probably need to go in the ground fairly soon. 

So that is the start of the garden season here. 

 Injuries side lined us for much of 2021 so things I wanted to do didn't happen.  We did get a nice crop of potatoes so will try them again this coming year.  Some of my other attempts didn't work as well...  Groundnuts need more shade and moisture.  I think the squirrels ate my sunchokes,  Runner beans were another winner.  Among my tomatoes Dwarf Pink Passion and Black and Red Boar were both winners but few others were as outstanding.  And those injuries meant that potatoes, tomatoes, and runner beans were about all we got planted... 

Hopefully 2022 will be better.  We really liked the fresh potatoes so will be growing them again.  In fact we have already ordered our seed potatoes.  We are bringing back AmaRosa a late red fleshed fingerling I really liked and Adirondack Blue a mid season blue fleshed potato that we both liked.  Then I added two yellows that are new to us Natascha which is an early season and Daisy Gold a mid season potato.  For storage I added Kennebec a white fleshed favorite in the US.

AND I once again joined in the MMMM seed swap.  Got my envelope mailed in today and of course now I get to wait and see what shows up.  I asked for more varieties of Runner Beans to trial as I liked what I got last year.   

Runner beans are a different species then regular bush and pole snap beans.  They prefer cooler soil conditions so I can plant them earlier and if I do a combo of regular snaps and runners I should pretty much have continuous bean production. That of course depends on the local insect population as unlike normal snap beans runner beans require insects for pollination.  But any pods I get can be eaten as snaps, left to mature and eaten as fresh shell beans or left to dry and cooked like dry beans in the winter.  Plus of course they have lovely flowers and are often grown for the flowers alone. 

My tomato plans for next year like much of my garden will be up in the air until I get my returned package from the swap but I do have a few will be grown already picked out...  I will post about those later

Ever hear of a step over?

 Neither had I until this week.   A stepover is a form of espalier.  They are only about 15 to 24 inches tall so you can easily step over them...   and work best for apples, pears and vines.    They are also used in cold areas as a way to provide protection for figs.  Since the trunks are under 2 ft tall you can easily mound  mulch and dirt over them to provide protection for them.  This lets them be raised as far north as parts of Maine!  I still think I will stick with a pot for my fig tree(s). 

So back to a stepover.  They are often used alongside walkways as a way of defining a yard.  I would have to figure out where the safest place would be to plant the trees but I can visualize a step over on the east side of the front yard with two trees planted 8 ft apart.  That would give me the pollination I need for a crop of apples.  AND make a nice little barrier for the public

Lots of changes happening in the back garden. I added my tumbling composter and was thrilled to discover it fit perfectly into a formally unusable corner :)

While I liked last years design there were some things I wanted to improve.  I had thought of moving the south box up in line with north box making a U that faced west.  And moving my narrow box next to the trellis that was in the wider box I moved.  While I liked how this worked the amount of effort involved in moving that one box and me worried.   

New idea hit me yesterday.   What if I move the north box instead.  Leave the east and south box in place, turn the north box so it runs north to south and line it up with the edge of  south box so I am one again making a U but this time with the open end facing north.    And leaving my narrow box in place.   Tried it in real life today and it looks like it will work EXCEPT the narrow box will interfere with the arch I want over the gateway...  AND for some reason I don't seem to have as much outside room as I did the other way...  I will have to give this some more thought but I do like the fact that would have 3 boxes running north to south giving my garden boxes better sun exposure.  

I need to get out there with a tape measure and a notebook and make sure I really have accurate measurements for the area and my boxes.   I need room for my potato grow bags, my asparagus bed, my short perennial vegetables I wanted to get started and my cherry tomatoes and peas...  so that will take a bit of work to figure out. 

A what?

Jerusalem artichoke aka sunchoke aka sun root is a type of sunflower that grows a tuberous root that can be used as food.  They are HIGHLY invasive in most area but can make a nice windbreak or privacy "fence" as most varieties are about 10 to 15 feet tall.   However there are some varieties that are down around 5  to 8 feet tall, those are the ones I looked at.  Oikos Tree Crops has a a variety they call Saint Charles that sounded just like what I wanted.  Shorter at about 8 ft tall, it takes only 90 days to produce chokes that can be harvested and has shorter stolons and smaller chokes just right for soups and stews.  4 tubers of that one hopped into my cart... 

The next a what? thing I got is called a groundnut.  Apois Americana is a vining plant that forms small tubers spaced out along a long stolon like beads on a necklace.   The vines can get up to 10 ft!  Again Oikos Tree Crop to rescue.  The have a new variety they call Clusternut Groundnut.  It is another early cropper perfect for our shorter growing season. And like the name says instead of long stolons with beads strung along it this one produced shorter stolons with the beads very close together.  It also is a shorter bushier plant.   Yep 4 tubers for that one hopped into the cart. 

I mentioned my two White Aster Dahlias in the last post, those will arrive about April/May just in time to plant them.  Not sure when the 8 new tubers from Oikos will arrive but I do need to start working outside this weekend if our snow is melted enough... 

My asparagus plants will also arrive about mid April so that bed needs dug and prepared for them.  Those of course a long term project with our first very small harvest in a year or two... 

I also settled on my new fruit tree.  I will be looking for a Mormon/Chinese apricot for the front yard.  They are hardy, late flowering, small at about 15 feet tall and best of all they are self fertile so I only need one not 2 like most other fruiting plants I looked at.   

Today is also another seed starting day or rather yesterday was supposed to be but I forgot to plant them even though everything is ready.  I will need to do that tonight before I go to bed... 

I saw this video last month so yep I got a tumbling composter like him and plan on doing this...  the tumbler is here but I need to wait for the snow to melt so I can set it up in the garden and get a batch of compost going...   I also got us a little bucket for the kitchen for our coffee grounds and tea bags plus any vegetable scraps so those can be saved to go outside in a tumbler.  

I will be a busy girl if everything goes as plans...  

Oh my what have I done...

 That asparagus bed will have to be made for sure now as I just ordered a 6 pack sampler.  It will get here about mid April and will have 2 Sweet Purple, 2 Mary Washington and 2 Millennium plants.   I also have some plants here from Lowes that are 3 Mary Washington and 2 Purple Passion.  Not sure how those will do I think I need to open their boxes and get them in a pot to keep them alive...  If they all survive I will have more then the 10 plants  I planned on my bed.  The 6 new plants are 2 year old crowns and the Lowes plants are 1 year old crowns so this bed is a long term project and it will be 2 or 3 years before I really start to get a nice harvest.  Of course the asparagus will go into the garden so I can keep an eye on it and protect it from things like Pronghorns... 

AND for the front yard bed I bought two White Aster Dahlias. These are considered the oldest known variety still in existence AND it makes a tasty tuber you can eat...  I want to get a few more Dahlia varieties for that bed but not sure what I will get. Most of the ones I like are all sold out so maybe I will just wait and order for next year... 

In the mean time I am weighing my options for things like a clumping type Jerusalem Artichoke versus one that runs,  looking for the groundnut vines at a price I can afford, etc.  But I do feel like I have made a few steps in the right direction... 

 

Big plans, little steps...

I discovered permaculture this winter so still have a lot to learn.... but I want to start incorporating some of it into my yards.  Which means "food forests" and perennial food sources, fruit or nut trees or bushes, etc. 

My garden in back is small.  I have at max a 20 ft by 20 ft area for it but it will be getting a couple of changes this year.  I rearranged my square ft boxes to leave room for an asparagus bed that I will be starting this spring.  I will be trying to grow mushrooms in mulched paths and beds.  And I am looking for places I can tuck away smaller perennials like Claytonia and purslane and maybe a horseradish bush.  On the other hand I want to grow more vegetables that I can put by or store for winter so the garden plan has seen a few tradeoffs but I am happy with it. 

My front lawn...  sigh.   This area has some challenges.   The house faces north and the road in front is a major road.  We have an old sidewalk that splits the lot in half that runs from the public sidewalk near the road to the house.   To the east is an alley with a single row of bridal wreath Spirea running from the road towards the back of the lot divided by two middle aged cottonwoods. These bushes are over 50 years old so will remain...  Also on the east half of the yard is the brand new water main.  That main runs from the road to the side of the house making it just a bit east of center, closer to the alley bushes then the sidewalk.  

The water main means nothing big or with invasive roosts can go on that side.  And those old bushes have to stay for now.  AND is another good reason to take down those Cottonwoods.  The other reason is they are both dying and becoming a hazard to us, our house and anyone who uses the alley.   

So step 1 is actually a big one - get the cottonwoods removed

Step 2 turn the left hand side into a "flower bed" with a cattle trellis covered in runner beans(good snap or shelly size), and dahlia's (these have edible tubers)  in front of them plus some low growing marigolds... OH and put in a single summer squash plant or maybe two..  This would look very much like a flower garden not a food garden. 

Step 3 Plant winter squash in the right hand size and let them sprawl within reason

Step 4 Remove the grands pine tree.  This will not go over well with DH but the tree is in the wrong spot and will need severe trimming as it grows. Plus it currently has broken branches from the record snow.  The branches are not clean breaks but rather took sections of bark with them leaving open wounds that make the tree vulnerable to any bug or diseases. 

Step 5 Plant more appropriate sized fruit bearing bushes along that corner.  I am thinking of Golden Current a native well suited for this area but I am still exploring other options.  This could be the start of a food forest made up of plants that fit our tiny lot...  

Eventually I really would like food bearing plants on both sides of the yard with some space left for people... 

Plants I would like to try:

Dahlia - these flowers have edible tubers AND make lovely displays also

These two are both very invasive so I may keep them in containers...

Jerusalem Artichoke - sunflower relative with edible tubers 

Chinese Artichoke - this is a mint that produces small crunchy edible tubers

Hosta - eat the new growth in spring treat like asparagus ( I would need to establish a shaded area for them)

Ground Nuts (Apois Americana) - vine that produces edible beans and tubers. This one could go on that cattle trellis in place of some of my runner beans.  

Horseradish- this one you can eat the leaves also not just use the roots for horseradish sauce.  It is an early green so could be well worth setting aside some room for it. 

There are of course many others but some like Claytonia and purslane are small enough for the garden while others don't sound that intriguing/good to me

I have been a busy girl...

 Day before yesterday I planted seeds.  For the garden I planted 2 kinds of onions, leeks, shallots, 3 kinds of sweet peppers,  Batac eggplant and some rosemary seeds.  The alliums should have been planted last month but it took a while to get seeds, seed starter stuff and of course the energy to do something.   The rosemary seeds gave me a single weak plant last year and I hope I get at least a single healthy plant from them this year but rosemary is notoriously hard to start from seeds.  Most you see for sale are from cuttings.  

Yesterday I transplanted 16 of the 17 seedlings from the 172X F3-C5 seeds.  I also transplanted the 2 seedlings from the 6 seeds of the possible crossbred seeds.  Sadly these look like micro seedlings so that cross probably didn't take.  

AND today I finished the requirements to apply for a badge bit in the Permie forum.   This one is for sprouting seeds.  I used some Einkorn, an ancient form of wheat, which is actually only grown out until the roots form.  Then you dry the grain and use it in a number of different ways.  I made porridge from my today and YUMMY that was very good.  Filled out the submission for the badge bit including a photo.  Now I have to wait until the admins look it over and decide if I fulfilled the requirements or need to start again.