Yeah!! We have a Greenhouse!!

Yeah!!! We finally have a Greenhouse!
Gary built us a Greenhouse. Good thing too, because I need to transplant all the plants I seeded a couple of weeks ago, and we have run out of room in the house. I'm really quite proud of Gary, When he was taking down a porch this last fall for a lady, he hauled the lumber to our place instead of taking it to the dump. This last winter he ripped the 2X12 & 2X10 in to 2X4 so we could build the Greenhouse. I think that was a great recycling effort on his part. It was a lot of work but it really paid off in the long run.

I seeded tomatoes & peppers on the 8th of March & a lot of herbs and flowers on the 15th and now they are coming up.

I worked in a green house my freshman & sophomore year in High School. Funny how just the little thing of tapping the side of the seed pack comes back to you without even thinking about it after so many years. I was very fortunate to have that job. My boss was Skip Mc Candless, wonder if he ever thought that he was really a teacher? He taught me just about as much as going to High School.

Before & After pruning the 2 variety tree.


A lot has gone on at the farm since then. I will try to post everyday this week, so you can see what we have been up to. We have 4 mature Apple Trees on the Farm, we really do not know what kind they are, but they are very good. One of the trees bear 2 different Apples. Since we really have not had Apple trees before, we bought a book to see how to care for them. This is what we have learned about pruning them. The first thing is to take out all the dead wood, then to trim all the limbs that cross and rub on each other, because that causes disease to set in. Then it said to trim the limbs that grow straight up. Well here are a couple of examples of what we have done. We have one Tree that I call the grandma tree. It looks like it is really struggling to make it. We did not get apples off of it last year because when I went to check on it in July They had already ripened and fell on the ground. I think they are an early June Apple, which makes really good pink applesauce. Gary thinks it is a Yellow delicious. We will keep a better eye on it this year. Glad these are here so we can practice on them while we wait on the new orchard to grow.
This is the tree I call the Grandma tree.

Spring is in the air Its time to plant!

Good Spring Morning to you! Now that we have all the fruit planted, it is just in time to start planting the Spring garden.
Last week we got in 126 Cabbage. We have always made Kraut in Jars. Last year we tried our hand at making it in a Crock. I really liked the texture and the taste, except We put a little to much salt in it. I would like to make Pickles in a crock this year to see how it does. Oops got off the subject.

We also planted Kale, Collards, Spinach, Purple Lettuce & Head Lettuce. This is the first time we planted Head lettuce, I am anxious to see how that works. We planted, Early peas & Snap peas, Kohlrabi, Turnips, Beets, Carrots & Radish & Onions, we planted 2 types of onions, one was given to us by a neighbor he called them bunching Onions, you plant just one & they multiply, they never get a large bulb, Just good green onions to eat, or what some people call scallions. The other was a sweet onion like a Vidaila. Wow until I put it on paper I didn't realize how much we can plant in the early Spring. We planted Red Potatoes, & Kennebec Potatoes, These we planted early so we have some when the beans come in. We will plant more after may first of May so they will keep better over the winter.


I remember the first time I planted Potatoes, It was with my Grandpa Faber. He had cut all the Potatoes and we went out to the Garden be hind the Cottage on their Farm, where He had a vegetable Garden. The rest of their farm they grew for the farmers Market or for the Cows. Anyhow, He took the stick end of the Hoe and pushed it down in the ground and told me to drop a potato in the hole then he kicked the dirt back over it. We plant the potatoes just about the same way today.

Oh, I need to get some cilantro planted, It really likes the Cool weather just like the spinach. It seems to bolt when the weather gets hot. One year I planted it among my Rock garden & It lasted longer, till the Tomatoes came in. I think that is because the Rocks kept the Roots cool. I'll try that again this year too. We will probably get the Cauliflower, Broccoli, & Brussel Sprouts planted this week.

Happy Planting!!