We have had a break in the rain the past few days.  It is still way too wet to cultivate the gardens but it is was great for mowing and weeding.   I also got moving on the perimeter field screen project.  I worked out a deal with a local nurseryman to plant fifty, twelve foot tall Austrian Pine trees along the frontage of the the road in our south field.  Eventually, I want to plant woods all the way around the perimeter of the farm as a visual and noise barrier as well as for protection from drift of airborne pollen or other contaminants.  This is part of our Certified Naturally Grown farm plan.

My Dad mowed the field in the area where the trees are going while I measured out and staked the tree locations.  It took a couple of hours to do this prep work and it is now 2 p.m.  Hopefully the trees and planting crew will be here soon.

The next thing I have to do once they are in the ground is to haul off the 50 big piles of soil as a result of digging the holes.  I have some low spots around that I will fill in, some bermed flower beds that I will create near the farm entry, and the rest I will use around the area I have been preparing for a pond.

After the dirt is moved, I will have to run water out to that area of the farm as I will have to keep the trees well watered throughout the summer.  It will be a lot of time and money going into this project, but the end result will be awesome.

Right now I am heading out to start potting up tomato plants.  A task that I have needed to do for days now but keep having other priorities supercede.

Oh, and if you are wondering how I have the time to do all of these farm related tasks, it is because we have added two full time and two part time folks to help Denise do all of the Victory Seed Company order work.  I do my part with the seed work – printing orders, printing packets, inventory management tasks, book keeping tasks, customer correspondence, etc. – after it gets dark outside and have been typically heading into the house at about 1 a.m. every day.

This is just a quick update to let you know that I am still here and that I have not forgotten about this blog.  The weather has been a mix of rain and breaks in the weather where we actually get to see the sun.  But the latter is rare.

It is still very cold and I have put off potting up the tomato seedlings.  I will start that task in the next day or so.  My dad cleaned out our utility trailer so that at first break in the rain, he can go pick up a couple of yards of potting mix for me.

For those of you who do not live in the Maritime Northwest and cannot understand what it means to live in a place where it rains for very nearly nine months out of the year, planning is critical if you are hoping to accomplish anything.

On top of garden planning for our own food, I have to integrate the trials grow outs with the seed production schedule.  It becomes an overlapping mesh-work between wants and needs, physical space, human resources, the climatic trends, and isolation requirements.  I never get to do all that I want in the gardens in any given year but if the plan is looked at from a multi-decade perspective, life permitting, I hope to realize my goals.

In addition to the gardening / seed grow out plans, we have to cram in all of the construction, improvement and maintenance projects into the few nice months that we are dealt.  With the exception of the greenhouse and farmstand to accommodate all of you local folks that have been patiently waiting, I don’t have any major building plans for this season.  I do have maintenance work to complete as well as a lot of fence repair work and later this fall, tree planting.

So, aside from doing the day-to-day work associated with getting all of your orders out, planning and preparing are the order of the day.

It was a gorgeous day here on the farm.  I got as much office work as needed to be done and got outside. Yesterday I had started working on cleaning up our blackberry patch so I set out to finishing that job.

Starting the Job

It can be an overwhelming task by oneself.  When neglected for several months, the vines become entangled, overgrown, extremely long and generally unwieldy.  Ideally, this task is done in the fall after fruiting is done.  When you are finished harvesting, the old (two year old) canes should be then cut out and the new growth trained up on your trellis.  It is much easier when done at this correct time.  However, for me, I am busy with seed harvest.

A Tangled Mess

Others have helped me with this task over the years but the only one that I could really work well with is my son.  He understands what needs to be done and so his help is actually help.  The task becomes a team effort.  Others cause me frustration and so, since John is off at college, I did it alone.

Old Vines Gone - New Strung Up

That is o.k.  It was beautiful outside and I was happy to be at work on a task that will provide me gallons and gallons of awesomely good berries.  Along with getting the old vines cleaned out and the new ones trained up, I got the Troybilt fired up, tilled, gave them all a shot of fish fertilizer, fired up the tractor and hauled and spread mulch.  I am hoping that the mulch will help keep the weeds controlled better or at least make them easier to pull.

Got It Done In Time for Supper

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Additional Information:

• Various blackberry varieties on the farm.
• OneGreenWorld.com – This is a local nursery where we bought our plants.

I get asked this question on nearly a daily basis.  And frankly, there is not one easy answer to give.  There are just so many variables involved.

You need to realize that nearly all gardening models and methods are an unnatural act!  They are an attempt by us humans to control and modify the very design of the natural world.  That is, we are trying to lord over nature.^[1] Don’t believe me?  Stop doing any gardening or yard work and see what its natural state reverts to in one year, five years, or longer.

I suppose that the logical starting place for answering this question is to determine the specific germination and cultural requirements for the plant variety you are interested in growing.  Learning where various plants originated from is a useful bit of knowledge for a gardener to possess.  For example, if you know that watermelons originated in Africa, you can make a very good guess that they require heat to thrive.  More information on vegetable origins can be found by clicking here.

You will also need to consider things like your local climate – both reviewing the historical weather information as well as monitoring and understanding the patterns for the current season.  This is the “art” side of gardening.  Although you can use scientific data to help you form an educated guess when finalizing your plans, you ultimately have to learn to take your queues off of nature and use your gut.  It is a learned skill, based on instinct, that agriculturalists have practiced since the beginning and that no one fully masters in a lifetime.

Some useful tools to aide you in planning your planting dates include following the instructions on your seed packets, review your garden logs from past years (You do keep a garden log, right?) reviewing the historical average first and last frost dates for your area, and understanding the optimum germination temperature^[2] for the types of seeds that you are sowing.  The following link will lead you to a general planting guide table, but if you would like a more practical, portable tool, check out “Clyde’s Garden Planner” which we now offer on our main store site.

Raising a successful and productive garden does require study, knowledge, preparation and planning.  Start with your garden plot drawing, the list of the things you want to grow, use the information and tools presented above, and decide what you want to plant on what days.

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1.  The exception would be foraging, nature crafting or even permaculture.  All of these methods are useful skills and require less effort on your part for the production part of the food cycle.  However, there is a reason that agriculture has evolved over the past several thousand years.  By focusing efforts on raising produce, harvests are easier, more predictable, and more abundant than foraging and gathering what nature may produce in any given year.

2.  Soil temperatures are very important for successful seed germination.  You can purchase very inexpensive temperature probes at your local garden center or hardware store.