Epic Fail

So, I am feeling like a not so Future Farmer of America...the term "epic fail" comes to mind.  I was really excited about sowing my vegetable seeds and getting them in my little greenhouse.  I thought this would be a fairly easy task...by easy, I meant that I would put the trays in the greenhouse, water occasionally, and miraculously, seeds would sprout, thus saving me from hours of wandering the aisles of Orchard Supply Hardware looking for vegetables...which everyone knows I HATE (sarcasm) doing.

It seems this sowing seeds and letting them sprout naturally is much harder than it appears.  I thought seeds would know what to do, but it seems they need much more coddling than I have been giving.  I'm not sure why the pesky weeds seed themselves with ease and my vegetable seeds are struggling with this concept.  (I see a correlation between seeds and society...)  Okay, back to the issue at hand...first of all, I had incorrectly assumed that the moisture level in the greenhouse would be fairly high even if I did not water daily.  Apparently, this is a very delicate balance.  I discovered the day after gleefully seeing corn sprouts, that if one doesn't provide adequate water, the seedlets turn an irreversible shade of brown and die.  Ugh.  I tossed those, went to Walmart and purchased new trays and seeds.  Of course, I managed to come home with more seeds than just corn...weird.  Replanted in those little peat disks...I'm not a fan.  Still waiting for sprouts.  The peat disks are just dumb...you add water to them and they poof up to epic proportions.  Then you are supposed to break the netting, ruffle up the "soil", plant the seeds and then hopefully get seedlets.  Yeah, I must be peat disk challenged, or they just suck.  I'm opting for the latter explanation.

There has been some minor success though.  What has sprouted are all the varieties of squash, some tomatoes, some brussel sprouts, cucumber, beans, and peas.  The herbs are either taking their sweet time, or are just not going to do it.  I'm a very impatient gardener.  I don't do well in wait and see situations.   I have a plan for my herbs this year, however, which involves the boy getting me some half wine barrels.  I think instead of letting them cook in the sun all day, I'm going to plant them in the barrels and place them along the porch railing so I can hook up drip to them.  We'll see...lofty aspirations at this point.  The garden isn't even in a position to plant at this point.  There has been little rain, so I'm pretty sure a jack hammer might be in order.  Husband will be so thrilled.

Signing off now and wishing I had given the seedlets more water this morning...Hopefully, they won't be too sad .

Seeds Planted...check!

A 3-day weekend last weekend...what to do, what to do.  Plant seeds of course!  While Husband was navigating the garage (cleaning it out), I decided to get my seeds planted and in the greenhouse.  We placed the greenhouse on the south facing wall of the house.  Should get lots of sunshine there.  So, I got all my supplies out as you can see in the photo below.  I thought I had enough trays and peat pots, but as it turned out, I had to go back to Walmart and get more stuff.  I'm going to have a monstrous vegetable and herb garden.  Not a bad thing, but I hope I have room for everything.  

Just a few of the trays...

Post sowing...soaking up some moisture.

I decided to stick with veggies I'm comfortable with.  I might throw in some fancy stuff (eggplant, artichoke, fancy tomatoes, etc.) later, but just buy the pre-sprouted variety.  I have some tomatoes, which I'm a little skeptical of.  I have never tried those from seed.  I also have peppers, squash, zucchini, beans (blue lake & regular bush), snow peas, and onions.  I would love to do some asparagus, but they seem like they are temperamental and tricky to grow.  I guess I'll look into it, but maybe just rely on the store for that.  

Herbs...I have 9 varieties!

I decided to have more herbs this year.  I have been using more during cooking and they are expensive at the grocery store.  The fresh stuff you buy in the produce department is good, but tends to go bad before I can use it.  Possibly because I forget they are in there and by the time I found them, they hardly resemble the product I originally purchased.  My plan with these, is to get a couple more half wine barrels and put the herbs on the porch.  They don't need so much direct scorching from our lovely Central Valley sun. The porch has a slatted roof, so I think there will be enough sunlight getting to them.  Maybe Husband will hook up a drip system for the barrels, so I don't forget to water them.  I had that issue last year...I would remember to water them when I went out to get some fresh herbs to cook with...I'd get out there and they'd already be dried...oops!!!!  I have basil, rosemary (yummy on my potatoes!), chives, cilantro (guacamole staple!), sage, oregano, fennel, chamomile (try to make my own tea??), and dill (pickles...duh!).  

 A few of my seeds snug as bugs in rugs in their temporary home.

I have a couple of additional trays to put in the greenhouse...it was pouring rain...gloriously...this morning, so I didn't get the rest out there.  The little greenhouse is an amazing little contraption.  Only a few minutes after putting the trays in and zipping up the door, there was condensation inside and the walls felt ridiculously warm.  

Hopefully, I can get the rest of the seeds planted and in the greenhouse tonight.  Can't wait to see the little seedlets in all their glory!  This year should be better as they are more protected from the crazy four-legged friends we have tearing around the property.  

Grapes...the next chapter...

Mother Nature...you win...I concede, but this whole "spring weather" thing is under protest!  76 degrees today?  Really?  It's February for goodness sake.  We had a smattering of rain the other day, but it wasn't enough to make my garden workable.  I'm pretty sure Husband and I are going to have to soak the garden just so we can rototill.  It looks like a huge task and I'm not really looking forward to it.  

On a more positive note, the pleasant weather this last weekend did get me motivated to get my little greenhouse put together.  It was actually super easy and I only put one piece on backwards.  I don't read directions and thankfully, there were some pictures to guide me.  I went to Walmart and picked up more peat pots.  Seed planting...begin!  Pictures to follow in my next post.  

In other news...poultry news, to be exact...the girls are pretty funny as they have become adults.  Their individual personalities come out at different times.  The two leghorns are smaller than the others, but rule the roost from above the door.  They sleep up there every night and in the morning when I go to feed the girls, they watch to see if I have food or not.  As soon as I open the lid to the trash can where I keep the chicken "crack", they walk to the edge of the ledge and jump down onto the condos and start making noise. They rally the rest of the girls when there's food coming...as if they didn't already know.  "Hey, there's that lady with the scoop...it has yummy stuff in it."

The fancy chicken (Auracana) is now a loner, as her sister was murdered in early fall.  I say murdered because I think there was some sort of conflict and some gang mentality that went down in the coop.  Can't really blame them, as both of them acted like the coop divas.  In fact, if we let the girls out to forage in the yard, Diva chicken wanders around like she owns the place.  Then when it's time to come in for the night, she get her feathers all ruffled and refuses to go in.  She'll run willy nilly all over the yard squawking and acting like Colonel Sanders is back from the dead looking for the next bucket victim.  Once we go inside, she'll roost in the tree that hangs over the coop and mock the others with her "charming" chicken voice.  Then the next morning, the crazy running starts all over again.  I managed to trick her the other day and got her back in the coop (she'd been out for almost 2 weeks!).  The others definitely don't like her though.  Too much drama.  She lays some pretty green eggs though...might be her only redeeming quality.

The best part of letting the girls out to forage is when I come home from work.  They all come running up to the car clucking away.  They must think the car is like a giant feeder!  Then they follow me to the deck and one of these days, they are going to follow me into the house.  Hope there's video of that someday!!

My girls!

Time to get some graph paper (yes, I'm old school) and map out the garden.  Again, I learned some things last year and am going to tweak the order of the veggies.  Some day, I'll get it right.  Some day...

Rain, How I Have Missed You!

It is raining...after much hoping, praying, and a little rain jig or two...it is finally falling out of the sky!  I am hoping that we will get some use out of the whole Storm Warn 30 segment on the local news.  That is still a source of comedic entertainment for me.

So, last weekend, I was at my local Walmart (not anything out of the ordinary for me).  For months, all I have seen when I walk in the Garden entrance, was something that looked like Christmas had thrown up.  Gaudy fake trees, a few realistic trees, blow-up Santas, light-up reindeer, clear and multi-colored lights and mostly grouchy people.  When I walked in this last weekend, I saw actual garden items.  What of course sucked me in, was the giant 16 foot seed display.  Top to bottom seed packets.  Everything from herbs to flowers to vegetables.  Giddy...that's how I felt.  My first instinct was to check out every variety they had...maybe take a few photos for future reference.  I tried to remember why I had even come in to the store and remembered that I was in search of yarn for my headband making "non-business".  I tried to walk in to the store, but the pull of the seed display was too much.  I ended up picking out several seed packets, some peat pots, and some replacement peat disks. The spoils of my efforts can be seen below!  Cannot wait to get these little guys started!

And, I'm back...

Has it really been since September that I last blogged about chickens and the trials and tribulations associated with the fowl creatures and my garden?  Doesn't seem like it, but I'm afraid I've been a lazy blogger and got caught up in another project...headbands.  Lucrative, yet short lived (thank God!).

Today marks yet another (!!!) day without any rainfall.  I think the last time it rained was in November.  I tried to Google that, but was unsuccessful.  We need rain...I wouldn't even complain a little bit about the inconveniences it would cause.  Promise.  Husband and I discussed the garden's future plans and how we would very much like to rototill the soil.  I'm afraid if we get the rototiller in there now, several tines would break off, making for some unnecessary projectiles.  Guess I'll have to start soaking the soil now.

On a much more positive note, Husband bought me a little greenhouse to get my little ones started in this year.  One that won't take up valuable dryer top space and one that can be dismantled and put away at the end of the season.  Of course I would love a walk-in sort of greenhouse, which I plan to have someday, but for now, this will do quite nicely.  The price was right and so was the size.  It's still in the trunk of my car.  This might be the week to get it out and assemble it.

This is hopefully going to be easy to put together!

I found another "tool" that might make my life a bit easier.  Territorial Seed Company has a vegetable garden planner app on its website.  You can use it free for 30 days and then pay some silly amount to have it email you when it's time to plant things.  I think I will save the money, use the app, and write down all the pertinent information.  Anyway, the app helps you organize your vegetables in an orderly fashion and gets those veggies that can't get along away from each other.  Pretty cool from what I can tell.  Just started playing with it today.  Speaking of, I'm going to go back and start plugging in things I want to grow and see what pearls of wisdom it can give me.  Do peppers really like to hang out by the tomatoes??  And can brussel sprouts live harmoniously with bush beans??  Stay tuned...

Chickens on Lockdown

I love our chickens.  They are pretty awesome egg layers now and they are good entertainment.  The leghorns have been laying daily and even the "fancies" have been laying as well.

Nice little assortment...

We have our new coop mama and one of the older coop mamas has gotten out of her mid-life crisis and has gotten back to sitting on eggs.  She's as grumpy as ever, but she does a nice job of sitting on the eggs.  Really, it's a pretty enjoyable world out there in the coop.  Key words..."in the coop".  The hens have been permanently banished to the coop.  I'm not sure if one is able to train chickens to poop in a certain area, but I would love to do that.  The last straw this weekend was when several hens were resting on the hood of Husband's truck.  When they vacated, they left us lovely piles of chicken poop.  He was less than amused at this.  Really, they are pretty disgusting critters...they poop EVERYWHERE!!!!!  And all the time too.  So, we put them on lockdown.  They expressed their displeasure at the whole situation by not laying a lot of eggs the last two days.  Maybe they are smarter than I originally thought.

What now??!!

Ah, the country life.  Serene sounds coming from the garden and surrounding areas...beautiful vistas from the back deck...abundant vegetation growing prolifically in the garden and beyond...the scents of nature and the scent of perfumed roses...  Yeah, this is not my scenario at all, is it?  I must spend a few moments on the negative...sort of venting...

The country life indeed.  Serene sounds?  Well, now that the rooster is gone, the sounds are less irritating.  The chickens are still quite loud with their clucking and squawking.  Also a fun  noise is when they are let out and start pecking at the cat food that Ninja hasn't finished.  But sounds aren't that bad.  Beautiful vistas from the back deck?  Well, if you count the monster mansion next door (very pretty, but in the way of my mountains) and the awful looking solar panels.  I have narrowed my "window view" considerably and if  I crane my neck just so, I can still see the awesome tree out by the fence and the surrounding land.  I have to ignore the dead vegetation that frames my views with utter brown-ness.  Bleah!  There is an abundance of vegetation, but like I mentioned in the prior sentence, it is turning or has turned lovely shades of brown.  The scents of nature?  I can do without some of those, thank you.  Dear lord, this weekend produced a scent of nature that I never want to come in contact with again.  I have to back up a bit...Last Thursday, a skunk had obviously traveled through our yard leaving a lovely odor for us to enjoy.  After a quick check that none of the animals had been the intended target, I went along my way and dismissed the incident.  In fact, by the time I left for work, the scent was pretty much gone.  Saturday morning, husband went out to shoot some doves.  He called on his way out and said not to let the dogs out in the yard, as there was a skunk in the front yard.  He wasn't sure if it was resting or dead.

Hard to tell from this angle...

Fair enough...I know better than to tangle with one of those things.  When I left the house, I saw the skunk.  I drove as close to it as possible and noticed at that point that it was clearly dead.  Bugs and things all over it.  Ew.  I let husband know and he said that he would take care of it later.  I figured all was well since the thing was dead.  We all got home, and decided to eat and watch some football.

Several hours later, I went outside to get something from the garage.  As I opened the slider, the most vile and disgusting smell hit our noses.  Another skunk??  Nope...apparently when these creatures die, their stink sack is able to still function somehow.  The whole yard smelled like skunk nastiness.  Time to put the body in the dumpster.  Hoooooaaauuuuggghhhh!!!  What an unpleasant task that turned out to be.  Thankfully, the garbage has been picked up and the awful smell has gone away.

On a much more positive note, it seems that both of the "pretty" hens are laying eggs and both of the Leghorns.  I can't tell which of the other newbies is laying, but there is a sweet one that lets us check under her everyday.  There's a new coop mama in the house.  Woot woot!

I had something else that was positive, but I can't think of what is was...another post on another day...