Hairy vetch.

I think it might be my new curse word...only it's supposed to be a great cover crop to sow underneath tomatoes, and I'm going to buy five pounds of the seed and try it. It adds nitrogen, and the soil needs that for sure, and apparently increases yield and taste of tomatoes. Will it choke out galinsoga? I hope so.

What I'm growing this year.

Forgive me while I purge my brain onto the page.

onions (yellow sets from Willey's - cheap and so far so good)

darki triple curled parsley
italian flat leaf parsley
common sage
sweet basil
genovese basil
santo cilantro
german thyme
herbs i'm forgetting

high mowing mesclun mix
hms gourmet lettuce mix
jericho romaine
salad bowl (not yet planted)

cascadia peas

french breakfast radishes

fordhook giant chard
ruby red chard

white russian kale

scarlet nantes carrots

yukon gold potatoes
russet potatoes

jacob's cattle beans
rattlesnake pole beans
provider bush beans

baby pam pumpkins
howden pumpkins for jack o'lanterns
spaghetti squash
butternut squash
dark green zucchini

green finger cucumbers
national pickling cucumbers
marketmore 76 cucumbers

roma tomatoes
jet star tomatoes
new girl tomatoes
sun gold tomatoes

(total of 32 tomato plants)

detroit dark red beets
arugula

I believe that is it. Note, no corn this year.

First harvest.

It's just getting to be time to harvest spring onions, thin the arugula, radishes and carrots, and start carefully cutting some of the bigger baby mesclun and salad greens. So we've been enjoying plates of goodness like this one. Right now I'm eating one that includes surprisingly aromatic Scarlet Nantes carrot thinnings and the first properly-sized French Breakfast radish. And no dressing - who needs it when you have mustard greens?

Garden expansion.

This year we have tripled the size of our veggie garden. To the left of that photo is about a 20x60 plot, which is roughly what we planted last year. The area you see is about 40x60 feet.

We used a cultivator attachment on the Ford tractor to rip the sod off and break up compaction in the soil without actually tilling. My neighbor called the attachment "spring harrows." It's sort of like a lightweight chisel plow. Five curved metal teeth with replaceable blades on the ends. Anyway, it works wonders in our boulder-y soil, as the rocks don't break it - it just springs around them gently. Then we dug out (most of) the boulders with the front-end loader on the tractor. That was fun. (Always is!) We had to bulldoze one down the hill a bit as it was too big to even fit in the bucket!

So with most rocks out (trust me, I planted around plenty of granite!) we attached the PTO tiller to our new-to-us Simplicity lawn tractor and tilled everything. The soil looked pretty good to start with, and with money at a premium we haven't added much in the way of amendments. This fall we'll be sure to secure truckloads of cow manure and till it all in, but for this year I just did some extra amending to the rows themselves, and will add a bunch of composted cow manure and some peat moss to the very far side of the plot in the photo. That area was the most ledgey and clay-ey.

Yesterday I planted potatoes and more of the delicious Jacob's cattle beans we grew last year. I have a pot of those very beans, grown nearby on Butterworks Farm, simmering in the oven. We make them with Mexican spices, sweat them with onions, garlic, spices and salt on the stove, then add water, bring to boil, and bake for 5-6 hours in the oven. Tender, delicious beans that make a great base for Mexican dishes is what we end up with!

And this afternoon I'll grind the 2 cups or so of flint corn we managed to grow last year, and make cornbread to go with the beans for supper. Whee!

June skies on Stannard Mountain.

I just love June. I think it might be my favorite month of the year. The long days (waking up at 5 am to bright skies is just amazing!), the languid nights, the warmth and sun and the promise of the entire summer laid out before us.

A finished project.

I did finally finish an article with some photos of our snazzy new movable chicken coop, complete with roosts and nest boxes:

Build a Movable Chicken Coop

I'm particularly excited about it because I really mastered some basic carpentry skills through this project. I got the hang of getting screws into wood, how to measure, cut and build basic shapes, how to fasten wood together properly. It was a lot of fun, and Matt and I did really well working together on it.

Expanding the garden.

Springtime busyness.

I wish I had more to share - photos, more energetic updates. I'm still slogging right along trying to work full-time and put in the garden. We're expanding it from 20x50 or so, to triple that size, adding two more 20x50 spots that were completely sod before.

I wrote this little poem below, the other day and it sums up where I am. I really, really hope to be here more and to have this blog be a place where I can share my personal triumphs through the season. We have a big season coming up, because besides the expansion of the garden, we are seriously considering getting a Highland coo and baby due in spring.

Things I Am Doing Right Now

Planting Tons of Food.
Picking Grass and Rocks Out of Soil.
Amending Soil with Peat Moss.
Learning How to Grow One Hundred Strawberries in the Square
Foot Gardening Method.
Following a Cognitive Therapy Plan for Weight Loss.
Starting an Exercise Program.
Decluttering a House and Garage Full of Stuff.
Eating Healthy Food.
Working Full-Time.
Caring for My Son Who Has Significant Special Needs.
Nurturing my Tweenage Daughter As She Grows an Inch a Month in Height.
Going on Field Trips.
Wanting to Write a Novel.