Wild Things Farm

After this spring, I've dubbed Crab Orchard, or at least Wild Things Farm the "squash bug capital of Tennessee".  I practice crop rotation every year, but seems like the bugs have a radar or a spy at my computer looking to see where the squash and cucumbers are going to be planted.  As soon as a seed germinates and comes out of the ground--wham!  It's eaten.  There are times that I've seen a handful of bugs around one plant.

This spring I sprayed rotenone/pyrethrum on the stem and saturated the roots of the plants every 3 or 4 days just until they could get enough size on them to grow, but the challenge of out-smarting these bugs has been, well, bugging me.  To overcome a problem you have to "become the problem".  So I started thinking like a squash bug.  Get to the stem and dig just under the soil, lay eggs and split.  Eggs hatch, become larvae, pierce the stem and crawl inside. 

I'm always looking for creative ways to use leftover things rather than tossing them, so I had this bag of torn up row cover.  I cut the row cover into little squares, about 6" square,

Then I wrapped the stem of my transplants (I started these in the greenhouse under strict supervision) with the reemay squares,

I then covered the reemay with soil and left the stem-wrapped part in its normal position, above ground.  Yes, it's tedious, but spraying so much isn't fun either.   It's only been a couple of days since this was done, but I think unless the bugs bring scissors with them, they might have a problem getting to the spot to lay eggs.  We'll see.

I purchase a lot of the seeds used on the farm from Johnny's Select Seeds and yesterday they sent out an e-mail that had links to the most useful tools that I just had to share...  go here

http://www.johnnyseeds.com/t-InteractiveTools.aspx?source=E_InteractiveTools_0411CGCM

There's a ton of info in seed starting, how much to plant, when to plant, how long till harvest, blah, blah, blah.

Hope you find something in there useful.....I did!  Happy Spring, y'all :)

I've grown sweet potatoes in the garden for a few years but didn't try to start my own slips until last year.  A friend's grandpa grew the biggest sweet potatoes--football size sometimes-- and I tried to start slips according to his method. 

He said to take a big black bucket, like a feed bucket, and put fresh manure in the bottom of it.  Cover the manure with soil then place the sweet potatoes on the soil, cover with soil, then cover with hay.  In a few weeks sprouts are supposed to start coming out.  All I could get out of this method was rotten potatoes.

While "googling" how to start sweet potato slips I ran across many folks who just sprouted them like you would an avocado pit.  Cut the sweet potato in half then suspend it with toothpicks in a glass with water.  Put the cut side down and set the glass in a warm spot in the house.  I put mine all around the woodstove in the livingroom.

It took a few weeks for them to start sprouting, but sprout they did!  I've got around 30 glasses with sprouting potatoes in them.   When the sprouts get about 6" long pull them loose from the potato and place  in a glass of water.  If the sprouts get too long before time to plant you can take cuttings from them and stick the cuttings in the water to root.  I've got one jar with about 40 sprouts I've pulled off the "mother" taters, and I check them daily for new sprouts that are ready to be on their own.   One of the CSA members came to visit a few weeks ago and she laughed and said that reminded her of her classroom years ago when she would have the kids sprout things and plant seeds just to teach them where food really comes from. 

See......most of what we really needed to know we probably did learn in kindergarten!

Each year I like to try new varieties of the crop menagerie at the farm, and this year is no exception.  It is so hard to resist buying one of everything in the seed catalogs when it is stark, naked, winter, but better judgement must take over because there are only so many garden beds to be filled (although there are quite a few).  New varieties that will hopefully find their way into the members' boxes this year include:

• Cauliflower, variety 'Amazing' from Johnny's Selected Seeds
• Several new varieties of beans, including 'Christmas' heirloom seed passed along from a couple who have been long-time members of the farm; 'Dragon Langerie' from Pinetree; 'Provider', from Johnny's; 'Royal Burgundy' from Pinetree
• 'Red Ace' Beets from Johnny's
• 'Nelson' Carrots from Johnny's
• Eggplant, varieties 'Fairy Tale', 'Orient Express' from Johnny's
• Melons 'Tasty Bites' and 'Sun Jewel' from Johnny's
• Snow peas, 'Oregon Giant' from Johnny's
• Peppers 'Lipstick', 'Sahuaro', 'Aconcagua', 'Marconi Red' from Pinetree and Johnny's
• Squash 'Ambassador', 'Metro Butternut', 'Kabocha', 'Horn of Plenty', 'Cashflow'
• Tomatoes 'Yellow Pear mini', 'Matt's Wild Cherry', 'New Girl', 'Black Cherry'
• Rutabaga

Last year I attempted to grow Artichokes but our winter was just too cold and wet; it was one of those experiments anyway. 

The tried and true varieties are the staples of the gardens on the farm but it's always fun to try new things each year. 

Quick update on the artichoke saga:  Part 1 was the selection and planting, Part 2 was the death of the first batch of seedlings (mice) and replanting. 

Every year I like to experiment with a vegetable that I haven't grown before, and this year the lucky veggie was the artichoke.  A variety called "Imperial Star" was selected that reportedly tends to behave like an annual and make a "choke" in one season rather than two seasons.  The artichokes were planted and grew very well in the garden, but after a full summer in the garden, "no chokes"! 

Plan B will be implemented, carrying this experiment into yet another season.  I've read to let the plants go through the first hard killing frost, which is predicted for this weekend, then the tops are cut back to about a foot tall and a heavy mulch is applied.  I'm going to use a thick mulch of leaves then cover with hoops and a frost blanket, then a piece of plastic to keep everything dry.  Artichokes are hardy to 20 degrees and around here it gets below that many times during the winter, so if they don't make it, there will be one more part to this series, to be called "How to Kill 30 Artichoke plants"----OR there will be several more parts with recipes for how to prepare artichokes.  Let's hope for the latter!

I've always been interested in saving seeds of vegetables that aren't hybrids.  Tomatoes have got to be one of the favorite crops grown in any garden. General instructions on saving tomato seeds include the words "ferment" which is a little scary to me--that's the last step before "rot"!

A friend of mine eased my fears from saving tomato seeds last year.  All you do is get a clean paper towel, cut the tomato, and SMEAR the seeds onto the paper towel.  If you can space them out a little bit, that works great because when you're ready to germinate the seeds, all you do is "plant" the paper towel and voila!  Tomato plants :)

I remember hearing about the fall gardens going in at the White House and it kind of drew my interest so I watched the online video of the project, but being easily distracted as I am, I didn't pay too much attention to the video because I noticed a popup ad from the USDA NRCS about a program for high tunnels, so that's where I went.

Fast forward through all the phone calls, and stacks of paperwork,  and Wild Things Farm was approved for a 20'x96' square foot high tunnel---whoohooo!

Progress on the high tunnel has been minimal throughout the summer because its priority fell behind the CSA produce, so it's been slow, but steady.  Lo and behold yesterday the project was completed. 

The frame is from Grower's Solution in Cookeville, TN.  It's a great frame, met all the specs, and the price was reasonable.  Oh, and they delivered it for free (cute college guy in a pickup truck!)

The local NRCS person came out to the farm and helped me lay out the rectangle--he had surveying equipment that made it much easier. 

After that, I pulled strings, drove in the ground stakes (as straight as I could) then started assembling the bows and placing them in the stakes.  Attached to that is the 2x6 baseboard.   My friend Kim helped with some of the stake and bow project, but most of the job was just a minute or two here and there all season,  by yours truly. 

Once the bows were up, the purlin was to go on.  I looked at the diagram on the net on how to install the cross connectors, and I interpreted the purlin to be on top, right?  I get the whole purlin installed and I keep looking at it thinking that something just didn't look right.  I've been in hundreds of greenhouses and never paid any attention. 

Okay, so I'm looking at the video and "uh-oh", the purlin goes on the bottom.  Oh yeah, I was wondering how that big hump was going to work out with the plastic.  Under is much better :)  So, I get the ladder out again, go all the way through the greenhouse and move the purlin from on top to under. Lots of up and down and twisting with a rachet.   Lesson learned.

Several trips to the local Lowe's  punctuated with spurts of carpentry work ended up being the ends of the house.  The doors are 6' wide x 8' tall, just inches larger than my tractor. 

The plastic goes on the ends first because the big plastic on the house is supposed to go on last, and they share the same wiggle wire channel along the end purlin.  I used clamps to hold the plastic in place while I adjusted and attached the plastic to the ends. 

Once the ends were on, it was time for the big  plastic.  The plastic made me nervous for some reason--I don't know why, maybe because it's SO BIG!  Several people offered to help, but when I got outside yesterday morning, it was like, really still, and I thought "oh what the heck; I've got 2 ladders and 4 clamps, let's go for it!"

Lots of trips up and down the ladder, dragging it from end to end several times, twisting clamps, and 2-1/2 hours later, the plastic was on!  A slight breeze began to blow just as I was attaching the last side of the plastic--perfect timing!

The wiggle wire system is fun to use but makes my hands sore from so much gripping and pulling.  It tightens up the plastic very nicely.

The roll-up sides were another story.  I had a time getting the poles to roll up evenly from one end to the other.  I redid the first side 4 times before I was satisfied with the results.  The second side took only 1 try--thank goodness for small favors!  The black webbing holds the side in place while it is rolled up and down, and the webbing plus the weight of the pole holds it all in place during cold weather.  The roll up side sure cools off the inside of the house--it's almost the same temp as the outside with the sides up--good decision to add that option.

It has changed the landscape of the farm, for the better, I think.  There's already a pile of leaves outside ready to be placed around the crops and in the pathways, and 2 scoops of chicken manure inside ready to be tilled in--yeah!

Being a CSA farmer means very long hours for several months of the year, and a welcome break at the end of the season.

So WHAT WAS I THINKING?  High tunnel, extended season?

Why certainly!  After a full summer of intensively gardening  just over 4 acres, this little garden should be fun!  (Once I figure it out).

I'm not exactly sure how much of a gardener's time is spent weeding, but I think it's a large percentage of the time spent in the garden.  This year, in the veggie gardens, I used leaves as mulch and it is working wonders!  Sure, there are places where the crabgrass is attempting to take over and I have to pull a weed or three now and then, but percentage of time in the garden spent weeding?---I'd say less than 10%.  Another big perk is that as the leaves rot away they are feeding the soil, which has a large percentage of clay in it anyway. 

The flower beds around the house are another story.  Last fall and winter were spent working on house things--cabinets, floors, and a couple of landscape beds around the house.  The one in the front got more attention than the side garden, and I was able to get most of the plants in that I wanted to, and spread a layer of leaves before growing season hit.  I've enjoyed watching the bed come alive with hummingbirds on the coral honeysuckle, columbine,  and bee balm, hummingbird moths and a myriad of butterflies and goldfinches on the anise hyssop, and butterflies galore on the purple coneflower, black-eyed susans and coreopsis.  Also, it's one of those beds that has gotten so full, that weeds don't take over and aren't really so noticeable.   As a matter of fact, a HUGE clump of millet came up on its own on the corner and the goldfinches and Indigo Buntings have been wearing it out!

The side garden is another story.  It's a sort of a rock garden in that I used a bunch of big flagstones to cover areas and left cracks and spaces between them for plants.  I did get a few Black Eyed Susans and a few native shrubs in before garden season hit, but no mulch.   The weeds stayed pretty low as long as it was hot and dry out,

 but we got a few showers, and today, after a few days of regular showers, I noticed the beginnings of a forest--a ragweed forest!   Ragweed can get REALLY tall, like 8 feet plus.  Crab grass nicely covers the rest of the ground in this ragweed forest.  I've always heard that "Mother Nature" abhors bare ground.   Being a CSA farmer consumes all daylight hours during the summer, so when garden season hit, the "pretty beds" were "pretty much" on their own. 

Today I couldn't stand it any more.  It's too wet to work in the veggie gardens, so I went to the shop, picked up my trusty loppers and cut all the ragweed to ground level.  Hey, at least it isn't hampering my vision any more, and I did catch it before it set seed.   One can actually see across the bed now. 

I won't say that using loppers is the most efficient way to weed, but it will at least keep the bed down to a "dull roar" until it reaches a higher priority on my list.

This year has got to be the year of the invisible helpers.  Bt (baccillus thurengiensis) has been in my arsenal of organic weapons for many years.  I use it on all the brassica family to control cabbage loopers.  There is another product I began using this year called "Serenade", which is another bacteria that fights blights and fungus.  It's being used on tomatoes every week to hopefully avoid the dreadful late blight that many tomatoes were plagued with last year. 

Another microorganism that I haven't tried yet but have plans to this week is Spinosad.  It's supposed to combat several kinds of beetles, including the Colorado Potato Beetle and flea beetles, two of my worst enemies. 

Several months ago I was contacted by a representative of TeraGanix, Inc.  She wanted to know if I would trial one of their products called EM-1.  This product is microorganisms that you apply to the soil and they feed on organic matter and in return nourish the crops.  I started the trial with the tomatoes.  There are about 13 different varieties of heirlooms and traditional tomatoes and I thought that would be a good way to see if this stuff really worked.  I planted three beds of tomatoes, two rows in each bed, approximately 320 plants total, and applied EM-1 to the bed on the left.  This photo was taken only 2 weeks after transplanting the tomatoes; everything was exactly the same except for the application of EM-1 on the left bed.

Pretty amazing, huh?  As you can see, the tomatoes on the left are much larger and greener than the other two beds.  I was amazed, to say the least.  I felt guilty for not giving the rest of the gardens the same boost so I ordered a gallon to give everybody a boost of micro-organisms.  I spent several hours today giving the other gardens a drink.  I used a hose-end sprayer for application.  It's a really fascinating facet of the chain of life and if you would like to know the specifics of it, click on the link below to get it "from the horse's mouth" (where did that stupid saying come from anyway, everyone knows horses can't talk---oh I forgot, Mr. Ed).

http://www.teraganix.com/?Click=1891

Does this insect not have any natural enemies besides humans?  The decision was made that this year the potatoes on the farm would be grown totally organically.   In years past I've always used a little conventional insecticide on the potatoes just so I would have some.  This year I'm experimenting.

Have you ever seen organic potatoes in the store?  I mean think about it....ever?  I haven't.  These potatoes were fertilized with organic manure and hundreds of bugs hand picked and squashed.  I'm able to squash a potato bug larvae with my bare fingers now.....I think that means something in the gardening community.  Well, maybe not an official title, but my nanny used to squash bugs with her fingers and I thought it was gross.  It's really not....it's just handy sometimes. 

In one of the patches I walked through yesterday there were literally HUNDREDS of potato bugs on the plants.  I knocked them off with the magic bug smacking wand (sprayer nozzle) into the pathway, sprayed them with rotenone/pyrethrum, them stomped them.  I realized that in my fit I was killing them twice.  Okay, stop panicking--the potatoes in the rear bluff garden are doing okay--if I keep diligently spraying them. 

I think the price of organic potatoes should be based on the price of gold.  There's probably just as much work goes into producing a bushel of potatoes in spite of this evil beetle as there is to mine more than an ounce of gold. 

Tomorrow the potatoes are getting sprayed with neem oil then dusted with diatomaceous earth.  We'll see how the beetles like that congloberation.

So far, this has been a pretty buggy year.  At least it isn't raining every day like it did last year!

Everyone knows what traditions are.  Families have traditions at holidays, and there are certain ways that you're just supposed to do things. 

Well, this year I broke a tradition that I've had for I can't remember how many years--I think as long as I've been gardening.  Every year since I can remember, I've waited until the tomato plants were really too large to stake or cage.  I know there are others out there who are guilty, and you know too :).  It's not a really bad crime, it just breaks a few stems and plants and in the really bad years, really small tomatoes fall off....but anyway, this year I got ahead.  The fence posts got driven, the wires pulled, and this year I'm trying out some handy-dandy velcro ties to hold the plants upright on the wires.  They are reusuable and if they work, very economical.  Easy to use, that's for sure.  I just cut them into about 6 inch strips, loop around the stem and the wire, and voila, upright tomato. 

There are about 320 tomato plants in the garden this year, thanks to absolutely NO decent tomatoes last year due to the late blight (which hit early in the season, I might add).  I guess it's kind of a withdrawal symptom to plant so many, but a friend provided seeds for about 13 different heirloom tomatoes plus the ones normally grown on the farm.  I learned how to make sun-dried tomatoes too, so lots of Romas were planted for that adventure. 

Today was really hot and on the way back from planting the second crop of corn,

the dogs took a dip in the creek.

It looked and sounded so refreshing it was really hard not to jump in there with them!

After we got back to the house, peas had to be picked and chickens fed and put to bed.  The three big hens are still in the portable "tractor" so they can finish up the lettuce and spinach and other spring crops that are past harvest condition, and the 6 week old chicks are enjoying their new house and back yard.....

 I took pictures while the chicken house was being constructed.  That's another story when there's time to put it together!  Now, the sun is down so I can rest.

I've seen lots of scarecrows in my gardening life, and sometimes I think the scarecrows are more for us humans than they are to actually scare crows away.  The coolest scarecrow I've seen was named Esmerelda and she had a really neat hand painted gourd head, mardi-gras beads, boobs, cool dress, and I don't know if she scared any crows away but she was way cool.  She lived in a blueberry patch.

 I've just planted the first planting of sweet corn, and as soon as those kernels sprout and head skyward the crows start plucking.  Today I was working in the tomato patch (installing drip tape, yet another blog story) and I heard the crows squawking.  I know the corn hasn't come up yet, but that was my signal to install the scarecrows.

When I first started growing corn here, it was the first time I had actually grown corn (about 3 years ago).  I never really had enough land to grow corn, since it takes quite a bit of space to do well. 

When the corn started sprouting that first year, my neighbor told me he had seen crows eating the sprouts.  I panicked, and immediately thought "oh my gosh, I don't have clothes for a scarecrow, or a hat, and what kind of head do I put on it?" (lol)  He told me the best scarecrow was to simply tie a black garbage bag on a pole and stick it in the ground in the corn patch.  The crows think it's a dead crow on a stick so they don't come near.

I've got these neat plastic fence posts that I've used for everything from flower bed surrounds, chicken lots, dog lots, flower bed protection to tomato supports.....blah, blah, but every spring, several of them don garbage bags and keep the crows away until the corn gets too big for the crows to be interested in messing with it.  Trust me, it works here!   I put them about 30' on center around the corn patch.  Cheap and reliable.

Happy Mother's Day!  I went to visit my mom and dad, sisters, brother in laws, nephews, etc., today and we had a wonderful picnic on an absolutely gorgeous spring day. 

There is a bumper crop of bibb lettuce at the farm this year, so I picked a bag for each sister and my parents.  I don't listen to the news, don't have tv, so when I handed them the lettuce and they laughed and jokingly said "does it have e-coli on it", I said "of course not, I grew it and I know how it was grown and picked".   Then they told me about the e-coli recall from several major grocery stores involving fresh green veggies. 

It's getting to be a scary place out there, depending on folks we don't know to provide our food.  I don't grow everything I eat, but if I could, I would.

Yesterday I planted the tomato plants; around 320 of them, assorted heirloom varieties, and several "mainstream" varieties that produce well, taste good, or have good qualities to them.  The garden prep went well, manure spreading, post installation, wire stringing, planting.....then came the watering in of the plants.  I think the initial watering in of a freshly planted plant is as important as colostrum is to a human or animal when it's first born.

Anyway, the garden I planted the tomatoes in is in an area where there is irrigation pipe to the general area for drip tape, but to do the first watering I have to drag water hoses around. 

I don't think there's anyone around who hates water hoses as badly as I do.  I bought 2 that are supposed to be "kink free" but they still kink, although it's easier to get the kink out than a regular water hose.  I had them hooked together and couldn't quite reach the last 1/4 of the beds (you know the story).

A few years ago my son (college, okay) gave me a waterhose during one of his moves.  He said he didn't need it anymore.  It looked like a college kid water hose (cheap), but I took it anyway, being the great mom that I am :)

I haven't used the hose much but I do remember looking at it oddly as it doesn't hang in nice round loops, but rather in a strange accordian fashion. 

Back to the tomatoes.  I needed just a little bit more water hose to get to the end of the beds I had planted so I got the college kid water hose out.  Oh my gosh----it is the water hose from hell.....kink is not the word.  AFTER I had convinced it to straighten out straight (about 15 minutes of messing with it),  I had to hold it gently in my arms to keep it from kinking just from holding the nozzle at the end to spray the plants.  It was worse than worst!  I honestly think I could have carried water in 5-gallon buckets faster than I got that hose to work, but it became a challenge, know what I mean? 

It did not get thrown away though.  I'm somewhat of a packrat of things that might be useful in another life.  I left it laying in the garden, so I know where it is, and it will serve another useful purpose, but I promise it will never have water running through it again!

Wild Things Farm was approved for a grant from the USDA for a high tunnel this year.  Since I've never owned or operated a high tunnel, I started researching both on the Internet and in books.  One book I purchased is written by Eliot Coleman and it's titled "The Four Season Harvest". 

I've learned a lot about gardening with high tunnels from this book, and one thing that has really stuck in my mind from that book (that has nothing to do with high tunnels) is "One year's seeding is 7 years of weeding".  This means that if you let a weed in your garden go to seed, you'll be weeding its offspring for 7 years.  That is my motto for this gardening year.  If I can't pull the weed up, I'll at least chop off its head to keep it from seeding.

That is good advice for all gardeners.

Did you ever stop to think about how much of our food never touches a human hand?  To me, that's scary.  I have three beautiful Red Star chickens and each day they lay three beautiful brown eggs.  I enjoy those eggs, as do my closest friends.  My best friend said she had to buy eggs from the store last week and her husband made the comment to her one day that "those weren't Terry's eggs" and she asked how he could tell.  He said that they didn't have the flavor, the texture, or the color of the farm fresh eggs from my chickens.  That was a compliment!

While working in the garden today and moving the chickens around, it dawned on me that so much of our food is never touched by humans.  I have "gardening" friends that load seed into a machine, plant it in the soil, spray the veggies with a sprayer on a tractor, then use a "picker" to harvest the vegetables.  The only time the vegetable is touched seems like when it hits the kitchen sink to be washed and prepared.  That's sad.

I know there are a lot of people to feed in the world, and everyone can't belong to a CSA or even know where their food comes from, but being in the business really opens you up to just how much junk there is out there that can be done to our food that no one really realizes. 

It's so easy to get caught up in the "spray" for everything that I think today's farmers have just gotten lazy.  Sure, it takes more time and energy to spread manure over a bed rather than sprinkle some fertilizer on, but the manure is feeding the soil and not just the plant. 

It might take a little more time to soak a bag of manure in water to form "manure tea" to water with, but the solution has a lot more microorganisms in it than a solution of chemical fertilizer. 

As far as insect control, building and hanging birdhouses, attracting birds to the garden areas, taking care of toads, bats, and dragonflies might seem frivolous to some, but those are all important aspects of gardening with nature.  Sure, a sprinkle with poison would get rid of the bugs quicker, but what about the critters that eat those bugs?  We don't want rid of them too. 

Every time I see a toad in the garden, a dragonfly cruising overhead, the bluebirds in all the boxes I've built them, the salamanders, snakes, bats, and wood ducks who all call this place home, how can I poison anything?  It's all connected.  Too many gardeners are worried about the perfect plant.  A few bug holes don't hurt anything....hand picking works well, but healthy soil and healthy plants work best.  I think keeping poison out of the food chain is a great start to a happy ending!  It's still a lot of hard work, though :)