Currant Events

My seed order came in the mail last week. We get most of our seeds and seedlings from the PHS Growers Alliance, but they are supporting lots of other gardens in the city in the same way, and we can't very well hog all the resources. So this month we'll be starting some things indoors, as always, on our high tech "growing stands," which are really just a pair of wooden shelves, skillfully crafted from two-by-fours and plywood. They are exactly the width of our "grow lights" (read industrial hanging flourescents) which always makes for a frustrating time putting the whole thing together- shoving the sharp metal fixtures in between the posts, then trying to unjam them each week as we raise the lights to make room for the growing plants.
I shouldn't complain, because it actually works quite well. It's compact (each stand is 2 feet deep by 4 1/2 feet wide or so), so it fits snugly against the wall and doesn't jut out too far into things. Each fixture hangs from the shelf above it, so all of the plants get nearly equal time and aren't competing too much for the light. We even have special heat mats for the warm weather lovers, which were an investment years ago that I do not regret. Now, to keep the cat from becoming interested, that's the challenge this year. This whole setup is in our bedroom.

I've got this great new desk that has all kinds of little cubbies that are perfect for seed storage. I labeled each cubby with the latin name of a crop family and put each packet in its appropriate cubby. This keeps me on my toes and makes me feel very organized.

I made some very large purchases this past month. I placed an order last week for 18 currant bushes (6 red, 4 black, 4 pink, and 4 white) and 12 gooseberries (drawing a blank on which ones), which should be arriving in time for early spring planting. These bushes tolerate partial shade, and I'm so happy to be able to use our shadier spots for something edible. Last summer I fell in love with red currants. The black ones will take some getting used to, unless I come across a food dehydrator for my birthday (ahem), in which case I can make lots of scones.
And finally, the fruit tree order has been placed. Yesterday I ordered 32 dwarf fruit trees, which I plan to prune to espalier along two fencelines in the area we've been calling an orchard for 3 years. Eight apples (Wine Crisp, Winter Banana Antique, Cox's Orange Pippin, and Honeycrisp), 8 peaches (Redhaven, Blushingstar, Burbank July Elberta, and 4th of July), 6 pears (Tyson, Moonglow, Beurre Bosc), 4 Plums (Starking Delicious, Shiro), 4 Brown Turkey Figs, and 2 sweet cherries. So, who wants to help prepare the site when all this snow melts?

News

The office renovation is complete and I've begun to plan this year's garden. After fiddling around with several online garden planners I finally got out a piece of good old fashioned paper and a mechanical pencil (my new love) and started drawing. I didn't like the online programs for several reasons:
1. I can't see the whole garden at once unless I scroll out so far that everything is microscopic. I really need to see the whole garden at once. Splitting it in half disorients me and I can't quickly reference beds when I need to see what I've got planted where.
2. It doesn't do anything that I don't tell it to do. It boasts all kinds of email reminders and frost dates and succession schedules, but only if I tell it when those things are happening. At that point, I'd rather write it down in a simpler form than use their strange (to me) format.
3. It doesn't know the difference between succession plantings and relay plantings. Worse yet, it thinks "succession" means "relay." Relaying is when you follow one crop with another crop as soon as the first is finished. Succession is when you make several plantings/sowings of the same crop at weekly/biweekly/triweekly whathaveyou intervals. Trying to manipulate this feature into doing what I want just seems like a waste of time.
Finally, it should be said that I am not a computer savvy person, and these programs may very well be the bees' knees and I just don't know how to use them properly. I think ultimately my problem is that I don't know what I need or want in a program of this sort. I'm taking the "I'll know it when I see it" approach.
A few highlights of the rough draft include:
-one more bed of sweet potatoes for a total of two beds
-one more summer bed of beets for a total of three beds
-broccoli raab
-leeks
-1 bed shared by eggplant and hot peppers. In the past, they've each had their own bed, but nobody eats eggplant, and hot peppers are insanely prolific.
-one more bed of cabbage, for a total of three beds.
-ONIONS!!! We usually say "No" to onions on account of their long season requirements, but we can't do without. It just isn't right.
-Winter Squash- two beds!!! We also usually say "No" to winter squash on account of its hogging all the space, but we absolutely can't do without that butternut, and neither can anyone else. We are going from 0-2 beds this year.
-So far, so good. I've got to show the plan to Matt when he comes home so we can tweak it. Then maybe we can order our seeds.

And the leaves that are green turn to brown.

I feel bad saying it, because maybe it means I'm no farmer, but when everything unruly in the garden dies back and the trees have lost their leaves and all that's left are the neat rows of carrots and cabbage and salad greens, and everything else is dead all around them, I feel at ease. The wildness of summer is gone, with all its overwhelming greenness, and there's contrast again. I can see what's left to be done, and it isn't everything. That jungly mess of summer, with its sprawling tomatoes and squash, has a way of making everything seem untamed, and I start to long for the tidy brown rows of winter and spring, empty and waiting to be newly planted.

short days, long nights ( A checklist, a to-do list)

Short days, long nights.
Broccoli harvested (didn't I say I wasn't growing broccoli? well, I did. And it was awesome). Garlic planted. Bed mulched. Driveway leveled/dump truck coming. Hoops raised. Greens covered. Tomatoes razed. Compost bin constructed. Tools put away. Crop list written.
Brussels sprouts unsprouted. Fence unopened. Concrete unhauled. Bricks unlaid. Beds undug. Leaves unmowed. Blocks unstacked.

In preparation for Matt's new job

Planting fall broccoli/pulling up spent cucumbers /at odds with the weeds/ at one with the rain/peeking in on potatoes /finding little more than nothing/unidentified sprawling squash plants/piles piles piles/squash bugs squash bugs squash bugs/uncovering strawberries/rescuing asparagus/admiring yarrow/fighting with locusts/untangling blackberries/laying down barriers/lifting others/soaking seeds/picking beans/wasp infested hornworms/bee stings/breaking sticks/carrying bricks/ picking up cats/ gathering eggs/dirty hands/dirtier feet/