The Old Ways

 

Image Credit

As I drive down farm roads this spring, I notice acres and acres of recently planted rice fields.  The rice is sprouted and is coming up in perfect, symmetrical rows, shimmering kelly green in the moist soil as the sun rises in the east.  Most of the fields are drill planted these days.  What a difference!  This time of year in the past, you would be awakened by crop dusters (arial applicators) flying over your house en route to plant this year's crop of rice.  I scarcely heard a single one this year.

Growing up on a rice farm as a kid, I remembered the old process well.  All rice was planted in the water.  Levees were pulled and fields were worked to loosen the soil and then flooded.  Then the fields were water leveled.  Tractors would drag water levels across the field.  The soil would become a muddy slurry, and you would pull the high places down to the low.  Gravity would level the area to somewhat allow for a pinpoint flood.  Laser leveling has GREATLY increased the accuracy of this process these days.

Planting in the water and water-leveling served another purpose - to try to keep red rice in check.  Red rice is an insidious thing.  It grows taller than the other rice, with a red or black seed that makes your sample of rice ugly and you would be docked in price for having rice with red rice in it.  Since it is taller, as the rice ripens and winds blow, the red rice would fall down (lodging), and it would knock down all the good rice with it, making harvest a slow, arduous task.  Planting in the water in a water leveled field attempted to bury the red rice seed so that it wouldn't germinate.  Red rice reminds me a lot of the wheat and the tares parable in the Bible.

We would purchase seed rice that would come in 100 pound burlap sacks to plant in the fields.  We would flood an irrigation canal and unload each sack into the flooded canal to soak.  After a few days, the rice would 'pip out,' meaning a small sprout would emerge.  Once this occurred, we would use a conveyor belt tilted into the flooded canal.  We would lift each sack onto the conveyor belt and others would remove the water-soaked sack of rice and stack it on the back of the truck.  It was so cold to be in the canal lifting those HEAVY sacks of rice.

The truck would be driven to the landing strip where a crop duster pilot would meet us in his plane.  He'd go over the maps to ensure the correct field would be planted.  The burlap sacks were cut open and all of the rice would be dumped into a loader on a truck that would be lifted up and loaded onto the crop duster.  The pilot would fly over the field, releasing the rice that would scatter into the water-leveled field.  

After a few days, the water would be drained from the field and the newly planted rice would grow.  Today, the land isn't worked as intentionally because weeds are "burned down" by using Round Up and seed rice is directly drilled into the unworked soil.  Red rice is controlled by chemicals and the  The 'old way' was a lot more labor intensive and manual in nature.  

As we try to examine the cost-benefit analysis of then versus now, it's a complicated calculation.  Yes, the old ways involved many people doing hard work.  Compared to today, the process wasn't as accurate nor efficient as it is done today.  On the other hand, we've largely replaced people with machines.  Expensive machines.  Expensive machines that you can't work on anymore.  Expensive machines that only a few can afford.  Farming increasingly implements the use an array of chemicals and the small family farm has largely been replaced by corporate farms.

The amount of capital outlay, amount of risk, and number of mostly foreign workers that must be employed in order to farm today makes farming look nothing like it did in the past.  I guess I'm nostalgic for the old ways.  I wish I'd hear more crop dusters flying overhead and see a farmer walking his levees with a shovel slung over his shoulder.

What Happens When You Rush Things

Gardening is an inexact science.  You win some and you lose some, and you definitely learn along the way.  For planting the spring garden, I use the average last frost date for our zip code.  Our average last frost date is March 22nd.  If you plant on March 22nd, you have only a 10% chance of getting a frost and injuring or killing your plants.  You can also use the Early last frost date.  That date is March 3rd.  If you plant on that date, you have a 30% chance of injuring/killing your plants.

Sometimes, I subscribe to the "you gotta risk it to get the biscuit" mentality.  I could gamble and plant early, right?  What could happen, really?  So, I pushed things this year, planting the snap beans, cucumbers, squash and cucumbers around March 10th.  Well...  Just so happens, it got down to 34 degrees.  I thought, incorrectly, that things would be okay.  We have lots of trees, the plants were mulched, they would make it.  I was busy doing other things and I didn't even go out and cover them.

All the plants were damaged!  Let's take a look.  Here are the snap beans.  The leaves are burned from the frost.  Fortunately, fresh new growth is being put on.  They'll be stunted, but most of the beans are going to make it.

But look at the cucumbers!  I have 3 varieties planted on a cattle panel trellis.  The cucumbers are hit a lot harder than the snap beans.  Honestly, I think I'll have to replant ALL of these except one on the very end.  I don't know how it avoided the damage.  I will wait for 3 more days to see if any new growth appears.  Then if nothing happens, I'll pull the trigger and replant.

This third photo shows the severely damaged squash, including hills of zucchini, straightneck yellow squash and crookneck yellow squash.  This right here was my main reason for rushing things.  I figured if I got a really early start, I could avoid the squash vine borers.  This pest usually kills all of my squash.  I theorized that by getting a jump on things, I could make a big harvest of squash before the onslaught of the SVBs.  The squash was absolutely beautiful, with big, healthy green leaves.  They would have been blooming in a week.  Then the temperatures dropped and all of the big leaves turned brown and died.

But I'm hopeful.  I see fresh new green growth.  There's an old adage that says, "That which does not kill you, makes you stronger."  If there's any truth to that, perhaps we'll have a strong squash crop.  We'll wait and see.

Finally, in the garden in the side yard, here are my butternut squash and spaghetti squash.  Burned by the frost? Sure.  But these plants will live to fight another day!

There are significant benefits to getting things planted early.  You get plants that produce prior to fighting the high heat and bug and pest pressure.  But there is significant downside risk that may cause you to have to replant everything.  Fortunately, I don't think that is possible.  However, I'm pretty sure I'll be replanting all the cucumbers.  I will try to rush things and plant early again, I'm quite sure, but next time, I'll cover all of the plants.

Planting In January

"To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow."  - Audrey Hepburn

I agree with Audrey.  January is usually pretty cold.  I'm writing this as I hear winds roaring outside and temperatures are set to drop to 30 degrees Fahrenheit by 6 am tomorrow morning.  This is NOT the time to be planting seeds outside.  But it is the perfect time to be planting tomatoes, peppers and eggplant for your spring garden.

That's exactly what I did Friday afternoon.  I readied two trays chock full of seed pots and pulled all of my seeds out of cold storage (freezer).  I got a five gallon bucket of fully composted wood chips that were approximately 4 years old.  The mulch had composted into a moist decomposed planting medium that I mixed (cautiously) with composted chicken litter.

I filled each seed pot with the planting soil I made and carefully labeled each seed pot.  Here you can see that laid the seed packets of peppers I planted over the seed pots.  (Datil, Shishito, Craig's Grande Jalapeno, Anaheim, Banana, Lilac Bell, Emerald Giant, and Black Egg Eggplant.)

 I did the same with tomatoes: (Tomatillos, Spoon, Big Rainbow, Creole, Cherokee Purple, Pink Brandywine, Chadwick Cherry, Black Krim)  This is when tomatoes look their prettiest.  When you are looking at the photos on the seed packets of perfect tomatoes, you kind of forget the heat in which you pick them and the stink bugs that attack them.  But right now, your tomato garden is perfect in your imagination.

I plant two seeds to a seed pot and cover with about 1/8 inch of topsoil.  Then I use a water sprayer to liberally mist the soil with water so that the water soaks in and down to the seed.  Finally, I cover the soil with a cut plastic bag.  This ensures that the soil stays moistened so that germination is encouraged.

I brought both inside to ensure the soil stays warm and moist to encourage great germination.  We'll give progress reports several times a month until its time to transplant directly in the garden.

Spring On the Way!

 

In the past few days it has warmed up into the 70's in the afternoons.  The remaining hens that we have left after the marauding minks massacres, are laying.  We are collecting about 18-20 eggs each day.  That's enough to where we've put the For Sale sign out in front of the house again.  We sold 5 dozen today.  The sales help us with barnyard expenses and we eat PLENTY of eggs as well.  

As you can see in the photo above the hens lay primarily brown eggs but we do have some that lay beautiful eggs in various shades of blue and green.  The photo also evidences the white Dutch clover that is coming up all over the yard.  Neighbors are already mowing, but I'll put off mowing until maybe May.  We'll cycle the cows through the yard to clean up the clover and other winter grass.  We'll allow our honeybees to frequent the blooms in the yard as well.

This early spring has me itching to get in the garden.  Here's what we've done so far:

This is my first year to plant bare root strawberries.  I ordered about 40 Ozark Beauty plants and got them planted in the garden in two rows, planted about 12 inches apart.  It's only been three days and almost every plant has new leaves.  I'm anxious to see how these do.  I've planted strawberry plants in the garden before, but slugs and snails have given me fits.  I'll anticipate that problem this year and find a solution.

On a 16 foot long trellis, I planted 8 feet of Sugar Snap Peas with the remaining 8 feet split between Boston pickling cucumbers and Marketmore cucumbers.  On a separate 8 foot trellis, I planted some Suyo long cucumbers.  All from seed.  The growing calendar showed a March 1 plant date from seed for all of these, but I looked at the 10 day forecast and jumped the gun a little.

Tomorrow I plan on planting an 8 foot trellis of Blackeye Butter beans and a 15 foot row of snap beans.  We harvested the last row of Danvers carrots today, so that makes some room for additional planting that we'll be doing in the next week.  We'll put up the carrots tomorrow or this weekend.  I keep checking the progress on the Irish potatoes that we planted on February 14th.  So far nothing has popped up out of the ground.  I'm a little impatient, so I'll be walking out and checking every day.

Spring is such a lovely time.  We're looking forward to enjoying some spectacular weather!

Running Out of Time

The rains have been few and far between this summer.  Shrubs and trees have died in the yard.  It has been an unusual time, to say the least.  We started four different varieties of pumpkins back on July 4th.  After watering them every day for a month and a half, the pumpkins at first gave a valiant effort.  One by one they wilted, drooped, waved a white flag and slumped into the mulch.

The fall garden deadlines to get the seeds planted are quickly arriving.  Broccoli, Cabbage, and Cauliflower had to be planted by September 1.  I think I was five days late.  Here we are.  As soon as they have their first true leaves, I'll transplant into bigger pots and water with some diluted fish emulsion to get them jump started.

Next, I focused on snap beans.  We just love snap beans.  They must be planted by September 10th.  We usually try plant so that we pick the first fresh snap beans on Thanksgiving morning.  We pick them whole and arrange them in bundles, wrapping them in bacon, putting a pat of butter on top and then topping with some brown sugar.  Bake them in the oven and you've got a beautiful and delicious side dish fresh from the garden.  (Of course you wrap most anything with bacon and it would be good.)

The problem is, the snap beans have to be direct seeded into the rows.  With no rain, and us being with Benjamin in the hospital.  That's risky.  Would the snap beans suffer the same fate as the pumpkins.  Well, we've been praying for rain.  I was thinking about holding off planting UNTIL we got rain, but what kind of faith is that?  We prayed for rain and I planted.  Looking back, I should have planted with an umbrella in my hand.  We were running out of time, but we got two rows of snap beans planted.

After planting, I watered them in with a hose.  I did the same the next day, too.  And the next.  And the next after that.

Pretty soon...  You see the little sprout pushing the soil upward.  Once I had sprouts, I'd water in the morning AND the evening.  I'm planting into homemade compost.  It is full of organic matter, but it dries out quickly.

The seedling struggles to push the soil out of the way, arching its "back," with its cotyledon visible.

The soft, early morning sun coaxes the first leaves to emerge, bright and green.  The seed coat holds loosely to the leaves before dropping off.  The stem, once hunch-backed, is erect and ready to thrust itself upward.  If we could see beneath the soil, we'd see a developing root system, stretching out in the ground.  I've layered some composted chicken litter a couple inches below.  Once those roots hit that, they'll jump out of the ground and the leaves will turn so green, they'll almost be blue!

The new leaves will soon open and will seek the warm of the sun.  The wonder of photosynthesis will begin to occur and continued growth will happen.

If growing conditions cooperate, the little plants will flourish and will put out blooms that will be visited by our honeybees.  Those blooms will yield fresh snap beans.

And those snap beans will make a great side dish for Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving will be extra special this year.  We have A LOT to be thankful for!  Thank you Lord for your blessings on me and my family!

Time to Start Thinking about Fall

Tomorrow is August.  The sultry heat saps your energy.  The lack of rainfall is concerning as the grass withers and is 'crispy' when you walk on it.  We wonder out loud, "when will we get respite from the heat?"  We patiently wait.  But, we prepare, too, for cooler days ahead.

With a change of season and, hopefully, rainfall, we anticipate putting in the fall garden.  We begin looking at our inventory of purchased and saved seeds.  We start looking at planting dates for different crops.  We've always saved seeds to plant from our best produce.  This year, for the first time in forever, we saved our snap bean seeds.

Toward the end of the spring crop, I marked several of our best plants and marked them.  We stopped harvesting the snap beans from the marked plants and allowed them to mature and then dry on the plant.  When totally dry, I picked the pods and set them on our drying rack to continue drying.  We had just finished curing our onions on the rack, so we had space.

I cracked open the brittle bean pods to expose the snow white seeds.  This variety is Blue Lake Bush.  We also saved three other varieties.

Some of the seeds had blemishes, but some were absolutely perfect.

We packed them away in dark vitamin bottles that we save for this purpose.  We label the bottles and date them. 

We should have enough saved so that we don't need to purchase any - at least for the fall.  We really enjoy eating fresh green beans that we harvest whole and then bundle and wrap in bacon.  It is a nice side dish for Thanksgiving Dinner.  We'll see what type of germination we get on the saved beans.  In looking at my planting calendar, you can plant a fall crop of snap beans in mid to late August.  Goodness, that's only two weeks away.  If we get a good rain, you can bet your bottom dollar, these seeds will be in the dirt.

Beginnings and Endings in the Garden

The new year brings with it new things to do in the garden.  A tradition I have is to get my tomato, pepper, and eggplant seeds started on January 1st each year.  I like to grow a lot of different varieties.  My favorite is probably Black Krim.  In past years I would plant a six pack for each variety with two seeds per seed pot.  If all germinate, which most of them do, that means you have 12 plants.  That's really too much for the space I have allocated for tomatoes, so we ended up giving a lot of plants away.  This year I decided to plant just one seed per pot.

Varieties this year include: Big Rainbow, Pink Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, Mortgage Lifter, Black Krim, Roma, Creole, Chadwick Cherry and Tomatillo.

In past years, I would purchase a special seed starting mix.  If you look on the ingredient list, it contains items like: sphagnum peat moss, vermiculite, coconut coir, perlite, and rice hulls.  Nothing wrong with any of that, but I would rather not pay money for something we can produce on our own - and we can.

I theorized that our wood chips that have composted in the back of the garden for three years could work.  It looks like rich, dark, moist topsoil.  I fill each seed pot 3/4 of the way full.  There are some lumps and even some small chips that haven't composted down yet.  For the top 1/4 of the seed pot, I take the same wood chip compost and scrape it through hardware cloth (think wire like on the bottom of a rabbit hutch).  This screens out the bigger chunks and makes the compost that falls through the screen have a fluffy, light, fine texture - perfect for starting seeds in.

I also planted the peppers and eggplant.  I'm planting Black Beauty Eggplant and the pepper varieties I'm planting include: Sweet Banana, Anaheim, Craig's Grande Jalapeno, Hot Jalapeno, Chocolate Bell, Emerald Giant Green Bell, Lilac Bell, Horizon Bell, and Criollo Sella.  

All of those germinate a little slower than the tomatoes.  In fact, most of the tomatoes are up.

That's the Beginnings of the garden that starts on January 1.  We also have some things ending.  The broccoli has been producing, but they aren't near done.  A cauliflower produces on head and then it's done.  A broccoli says, "Not so fast, my friend."  After the big head has been picked on a broccoli, the plant produces many florets.  So many that you must pick them just about every day.

If you aren't dutiful in picking, some of the florets quickly go to flowering, which is bad for us, but good for the honeybees.  You can see a honeybee checking out the beautiful yellow flowers of a broccoli that has gone to flower.

Each day (that I remember) I bring a colander out to the 3 rows of broccoli and do some picking.  In no time at all I have pretty good mess of broccoli florets picked.  Yeah, a few flowers, too.  I'm not particular, I'll eat the flowers.  We generally pour this on a stoneware tray, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and sprinkle minced garlic on top and then stir up.  We roast that in the oven and devour it.  We call it broccoli candy.

I don't know how to quantify it, but I would guess we harvest MORE pounds of broccoli florets like this than we do in the bigger heads of broccoli.  It's like a 'second crop' of broccoli.

A Brief Work Excursion AND Planting More Protein

I was out of pocket for a few days.  Russ, our oldest son, looked after the animals, fed them, gathered eggs and everything else that needs to be done around the homestead.  Tricia and I journeyed out to Baton Rouge for a couple of days for a work conference.  The Company put us up in a hotel that overlooked the Mississippi River.  We watched tug boats push long lines of barges stacked back to back up and down the river.

I attended meetings, but there was some fun intermixed and good eating, of course.  One adventure was a bus trip to TopGolf.  Let me be clear - I am not a golfer.  Back in the 80's, I went golfing for the first time in my life.  I teed off and the ball sliced or hooked or whatever you call it.  I knew that you needed to holler something, so I yelled, "Fore!"  A gentleman on the next green got out of his golf cart, looked my way and yelled, "What?"  Just at that time, my golf ball hit him square in the forehead.  A lump immediately grew on his head like in the cartoons.  He was very angry.  I realized that golf was a sport that required a lot of practice AND that I was dangerous at this thing.  Someone could get seriously injured.  I have not been on a golf course since then.

TopGolf is different.  It is more like bowling than golf.  A ball comes out, you hit it and you get points if you land the ball in lit up circles.  There is some sort of computer tracking of the ball.  It reads your score on a computer screen.  Food is served and everyone has a nice time.  Here is Tricia teeing off.

There are hundreds of bays and hundreds of people playing.  We were on the third floor.  The smile on my face shows my relief in that I didn't hit anyone with an errant ball.

While a golf club is a strange implement in our hands, a garden hoe and rake is not.  Last week once the rains came through, I got busy and planted two more 45 foot rows of Ozark Razorback Peas and Blackeyed Peas.  With threats of food shortages and inflation, I figured we'd get some more protein planted.  Rice and Peas with a little smoked tasso for flavor is a nutritious, quick, hearty, tasty meal.  

This planting was an experiment of sorts.  I was checking the germination in some OLD seed I had saved many years ago.  Both of the containers of saved seed were labeled with the name of the seed (Ozark Razorback and Blackeye - both Southern cowpeas).  They were also labelled with the year I saved them.  2012!!!  You read that right.  I saved them ten years ago.  Counting on diminished germination, I planted them one inch apart rather than the normal four inch spacing.  Look what happened:

The germination on the decade-old seed was pretty doggone good!  There are a few gaps, but they'll fill in.  Not too shabby.  Once the peas were up three inches or so, I pulled the mulch around the plants to discourage weed growth and preserve soil moisture.

We're still picking purple hull peas, ozark razorback peas, and blackeyed peas from the current garden.  When those play out, these will be ready for harvest.  It will soon be time to start planting the fall crop.  I'm looking forward to that!

A Little Food Security

Last night as I was about to log in to journal, I couldn't get any WiFi.  The wifey told me that she was receiving texts from our Service Provider that internet service was out for maintenance.  Hmmm... This happens from time to time.  It always makes me cognizant of how interconnected we are and how important communication is.  Anyway, I decided to try again tonight, and voila!  We are live again.  

I promised a post on the thought that a lot of people are having.  What is going on in our world?  Due to my faith, I won't be fearful.  I won't worry.  I won't be anxious about things I have no control over.  I don't think things are falling apart.  I think things are falling in place.  I'm very interested in Bible Prophecy, and I believe that we're seeing things happen in fulfillment of prophecy day by day.  

My brother-in-law shared the following with me:

Commodity price changes over the last year:
Heating Oil    +90%

WTI Crude    +80%

Brent Crude    +79%

Coffee            +73%

Gasoline        +70%  (ha ha, this one has changed since this list was put together)

Aluminum    +70%

Nat. Gas        +69%

Wheat            +59%

Corn                +35%

Cotton            +34%

Lumber           +34%

Soybeans        +18%

Sugar              +15%

Copper            +13%

Gold                +12%

CPI                  +7.5%

We are truly seeing rising prices like we've not seen in our lifetimes.  With energy costs at record levels, increased costs of production and freight will trickle down to us in the form of higher pricing for everything.  While it will be difficult for everyone, my wife and I discussed the plight of elderly folks who live on a fixed income.  They will be in a pinch.  Fertilizer is in very short supply and will certainly reduce yields, resulting in diminished supply of food.  I'm a practical person for the most part.  When things like this happen, I ask: "What can I do?"  Are you like that?

Well, here's what I'm doing.  First, I'm praying.  Hard.  For a long time now, our country has shaken their collective fists at God.  We've reveled in sin, calling good evil and evil good.  We've indulged in every form of bad behavior imaginable.  Rebellion always leads to God's judgment.  If this is the case, I pray that God opens hearts to His Grace and Truth, and we repent.  I also pray for strength to make it through the upcoming storms that are sure to come.  He is faithful and He will provide.

Next, I am planting.  I am prepared to put in more crops this year than ever. I am planting more protein - peas and beans, and fillers like potatoes.  I planted more than I've ever planted before this year.  About a quarter of them are popping out of the ground with more to follow.  Here's a healthy Irish Potato sprout right here:

I've also been toying with the thought of working up more land in the yard to plant.  Everything grown in the garden reduces your dependence on the grocery store.  I often think about Victory Gardens planted during WWII.  Here's what wiki says about them:

They were used along with Rationing Stamps and Cards to reduce pressure on the public food supply. Besides indirectly aiding the war effort, these gardens were also considered a civil "morale booster" in that gardeners could feel empowered by their contribution of labor and rewarded by the produce grown. This made victory gardens a part of daily life on the home front.

Even though I pray we will NOT be involved in a war, planting a garden still provides the benefits spoken of.  Gardening is such a hopeful endeavor.  As you see the young plants grow, you enjoy seeing the development and look forward to the delicious fruits of your labors. 

I will be the first to admit that I sometimes get so excited about gardening that I 'jump the gun.'  Below you can see the many onions that are growing.  They are very healthy.  Just to the left of them, you can see two rows of ten tomatoes I've planted with another three rows planned.  I stopped because I checked the weather forecast and see that we're expecting temps in the upper 20's this Sunday.  I'll have to wrap and cover the tomatoes so they won't be lost!

On the positive side, you can see our composting project and how it is progressing.  You can see the rich, dark compost I've layered around the onions and tomatoes.  As they grow, I'll put a 2 - 4 inch layer of wood chips on top.  

Finally, to make room for planting the spring crops, we'll need to harvest the existing ones.  Tricia is sitting beside a row of Bull's Blood Beets that will be maturing and ready for harvest shortly.

Once the cold weather this weekend passes, we'll be planting in earnest.  I had an old preacher that had a quote he would repeat time after time.  He was raised during the Great Depression.  He told the congregation that they had a big family and times were hard, but they grew what they ate and never went hungry.  He said they had great variety in their meals.  He said, "One day we'd eat rice and beans.  The next we'd eat beans and rice!"

Big Gardening Weekend Ahead

 

The photo above is of our garden taken on March 1st.  In the foreground you can see a couple of broccoli that we're still picking florets off of.  We've eaten a bunch of broccoli this year.  Then you can see some dinosaur kale and some green kale.  Tricia has been juicing a lot of that.  Next are four rows of onions then a jungle of cilantro that is about to go to seed.  Then green onions, parsley, another row of broccoli, a few Cosmic red carrots, spinach, radishes and lettuce that is about to go to seed.  In a separate bed, I have some Irish Potatoes planted, but they've not sprouted yet.

This weekend we have a lot of work to do.  I will be incorporating some of the biochar we made into the soil.  We'll be picking a lot of the items I listed above and doing some planting.  Definitely corn, snap beans of several variety, a variety of cucumbers,  and several different types of squash.  If we have time, I'll figure out some additional items to plant.  Finally, we'll add more mulch to the garden (4 inches deep) to crowd out weed growth and conserve soil moisture.  It has been an unusually dry year so far.

Spring is upon us!  The weather is great.  Lows this weekend is 59 degrees and high of 82 degrees and it will be good to get outside and get our hands dirty.

Tomatoes, Peppers, and Eggplant Planting in January

Normally, I plan on planting our tomato, pepper and eggplant seeds on New Year's Day.  This year it didn't happen.  I'm six days late, but that's okay.  Better late than never, as the old saying goes.  This year I'm planting the following tomato varieties:

Roma, Mortgage Lifter, Creole, Pink Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, Chadwick Cherry, Black Krim and Big Rainbow organic.

This year (being late) I didn't do what I normally do and purchase Seed Starting Mix as the medium for planting the seeds.  I used what I had on hand, which was various types of potting soil.  We'll see if that works.  I plant two seeds per seed pot and I always label the seed pots with the variety and the date planted so that I can keep straight what is planted.

I'm also planting the following pepper plants:

Horizon (orange) bell, Hot Jalapeno, Craig's Grande Jalapeno, Anaheim, Banana, Lilac bell, Emerald Giant, and Criolla Sella.

Same thing here, they're labeled and planted two to a seed pot.

I covered with an eighth of an inch of soil and watered them in.  I did the same with Eggplant.  Last year's crop was a PHENOMENAL crop.  I'm hoping they do as well this year.  Unfortunately, I ran out of the Florida Market Eggplant and I'm using Southern Exposure Black Eggplant.  We'll see if this variety rivals the variety from last year.

Now we'll watch for germination.  I keep them inside when it is cool outside and once they germinate, I'll put them under grow lights.  

Planting Onions in Early January 2022

My onion sets I purchased arrived in the mail a couple of weeks ago.  I've been too busy with work to get them in the ground.  I am studying to pass the State Licensing Exam for Insurance Adjusters.  It's a big test (150 questions with 160 minutes to take it).  I'm taking it Monday after studying for over a month.  I need a 70% score to pass.  This has taken up a lot of my time and so I haven't been as diligent in getting things done that I normally do.

Time to do something about that!  Tuesday afternoon, I got some baling twine (so useful), a hoe, a rake, and determination and headed out to plant roughly 250 onions.  As described in a previous post, they are short-day onions and I got Red Creole, Texas White, 1015 Sweet, and Yellow Granex.  They will do fine for about 3 weeks without planting, but I needed to get them in the ground!

Onions are planted four inches apart and one inch deep.  You don't want to plant them any deeper or they won't bulb.  I forgot one essential tool in planting onions - the rolling seat you see on the right below.  It was my grandmother (Bumby's) gardening seat.  It sure comes in handy and saves the old back!

Once you get one row planted, you mark off 6 inches from the onions and dig a trench four inches deep and four inches wide and sprinkle 1/2 cup of organic fertilizer and then cover.

Then you mark off 6 inches from your fertilizer trench and plant another row of onions.

Once I got all the onions planted, I watered them in.  Onions are a hardy crop, but they require lots of water and lots of weeding.  They don't like competition from weeds for their nutrients.  I'll mulch around them to accomplish this once they show some good growth.

It took me two hours to finish, but at the end, I had four rows of onions.  Hopefully, we will have a good crop again in 2022.  2021 was a record year for us with onions and we're trying to repeat it.  The cows look on approvingly at the onion planting.  Below you can see from left to right: (Elsie, Clarabelle, Rosie, and LuLu sitting)

We'll post and show progress on the onions throughout the growing season.  If you're ever interested, we get our onion plants from Dixondale Farms.  Check them out on the Internet.  They are a good outfit and I highly recommend them.  I'm looking at picking up some seed potatoes from the feed store tomorrow and will cut them so they'll scab over.  Once that's done, we'll get them in the ground.

Planting Sugar Snap Peas

A favorite fall vegetable crop of ours is Sugar Snap Peas.  They are a staple in our garden from year to year.  They blanch and freeze well and are delicious in stir fry dishes, soups and Asian dishes and to just eat them raw out standing by the pea trellis.  Once I cleared out the beans from the trellis that were finishing up from the Spring Garden, I reworked one little row to prepare a nice seedbed for this year's Sugar Snap Peas.

I plant them one inch deep and four inches apart right beneath the trellis, which is simply a 16 foot livestock panel placed between t-posts for support.  The soil was covered with mulch and as I raked away the mulch, the ground worked up well, not compacted at all and had good soil moisture.

The peas are dried out, but upon coming in contact with the soil, they'll come to life!

Here is a better photo of the trellis.  If you look closely, you can see the peas in the trench, planted four inches apart.  It is important to have a sturdy trellis as these peas grow tall, exceeding 6 feet.  The plant can be heavy and will blow over in high winds.  Sometimes we have to tie the vines to the trellis.  Once the peas get about 5 inches tall, they send out tendrils.  We walk by and wrap the tendrils around the trellis to train them to climb.  Once latched on, there's no stopping them!

We thought we were all good to go, but then it rained.  And rained and rained.  We never thought it would stop.  All the peas in the ground must have rotted because only 1 sugar snap pea plant germinated!  But that won't slow us down.  As soon as the ground dried up, we replanted from the peas in the same packet.  This time they germinated.  Every last one of them.

The little peas are vigorous and healthy.  Cooler temperatures and beautiful weather have encouraged growth.  Before long we'll pull mulch around the base of the plants to discourage competition from weeds.  Then I'll add some fish emulsion and we'll sit back and watch them grow.

In addition to being delicious to eat, sugar snap peas have beautiful flowers that enhance the garden.  We'll show some photos as the pea crop of 2021 progresses.