Tag: brassicas

Happenings Around the Homestead

What a week!  We started off and ended with some beautiful spring-like weather, which is fitting now that we have officially crossed over to spring.  It wasn’t without a nice brisk few days inbetween though.  Even so, my gardening fingers are itching!

Speaking of fingers, both my index finger and thumb seem to be healing up nicely from the pruning accident last weekend.  The index finger in particular seems to be doing quite well.  The thumb was cut deeper, and I still do not have full flexibility with it.  It is improving day by day though.

The big homestead project this week was to create a portable chicken run, which I decided to make out of PVC and fencing.  It wouldn’t hold a big dog, but it will hold chickens.  😀  This is light enough two people can move it, though four people would be able to handle it easier.  The plan is to move it to a different place in the yard weekly, and then let the chickens have a considerable amount of time in it throughout the day, which should give them a nice addition of bugs and grass to their diet.  I’ll show pictures of it in tomorrow’s post.

Oh, one other thing from this weekend is that I opened my winter sowing pots and let them breathe.  It is really going so well.  All plants haven’t sprouted up in hearty strength yet, but I think all of them have sprouted.  The brassicas are looking really good though!  It won’t be long until they have their first true leaves and are ready for transplanting!

Winter Sowing - Broccoli

Winter Sowing – Broccoli

Yes, they need thinned out – ALOT!  I didn’t think I seeded that heavily, but obviously I did.

That reminds me of another task I need to complete.  I need to stake the garden off so I can know exactly where the planting areas are according to my planting map.  Yeah, yeah, yeah – that’s the nerd coming out in this gardener.  😀

Happenings Around the Homestead

It is often said here, as in other areas, if you don’t like the weather, wait a day. It will change. This week has been a real example of that. Within a one week time period we went from very low temperatures and greater than a foot of snow on the ground to a fantastically warm 72° F. Welcome to spring in Kentucky!

I was on the road for my job last week, and was anxious to get back home for a number of reasons, one of which being to check the winter sown vegetables. I am very excited to report that many of them have sprouted! Check these pictures out:

Winter Sowing Sprouts

Calbrese Broccoli Sprouts

 

Winter Sowing Sprouts

German Chamomile Sprouts

So far I see sprouts in the Romanesco Broccoli, Purple Broccoli, German Chamomile, Purple Cabbage, Calabrese Broccoli, Early Jersey Cabbage, Forage Kale, and Russian Kale winter sown containers. Woot! Now to see if they survive the coming cold spell, though I suspect they will.

One thing I am excited about this year is my Back to Eden garden.  While I can’t speak to the success of the garden here yet, I can tell you that I will be able to get my garden out much sooner than I would if I were planting traditionally.  Our ground is absolutely saturated.  Even so, I can walk all over these woodchips and not feel as if I am sinking in at all.  This is wonderful!

Despite the rain on Saturday, I decided to go ahead and plant some brassicas and lettuces:

Kale, Cabbage, and Broccoli

Kale, Cabbage, and Broccoli

 

Lettuce in the Raised Bed

Lettuce in the Raised Bed

I also decided to spend some time pruning my fruit trees this weekend.  I received some nice pruning equipment for Christmas, which I have been wanting to use, and I am several weeks behind the latest date I wanted to do this, but the weather has not been cooperating at all.  Here are the tools:

Pruning Tools

Pruning Tools

Let me tell you – that saw is sharp!  Don’t ask me how I know that.  However, if you see me over the next few days, you will know how I know.  🙁   If you want to see what happened, you can check it out, but don’t click on the link if you can’t handle seeing pruning wounds.  Seriously, it’s not that bad, but you still may not want to click on it.

I pruned two apple trees and a cherry tree, and I am extremely pleased with how it turned out.  Here are a few before and after shots of the apple trees:

Apple Trees - Before Pruning

Apple Trees – Before Pruning

Pruned Apple Tree

Pruned Apple Tree

Pruned Apple Tree

Pruned Apple Tree

So the point in pruning back so much is to shape the tree as I want it to be shaped, and to limit the height to something usable/reachable for me.  I also want to provide plenty of air flow and sunshine.  While they look a little bare right now, I am expecting them to fill on out as the spring and summer move forward.  If I have done the job right, we should see better apples this year off these trees.

As you can see, I still need to clean up the branches, but that can wait.  I plan to cut up that wood to use for smoking food later in the year.  There are also still a few branches on the second tree (the last picture) that need trimmed, but I need my pole pruner to reach them.  I will hopefully get to that today.

Loading...
X