March 31 Field prep, Bee Keepers, large plants!

My nephew, Andrew, transported my sister's tractor to The Farm as it can pull a double bottomed plow. He keeps the equipment running as he is a mechanic. It is wonderful that he helps out at The Farm. (Really marvelous!!!)

Matt, one of my other nephews, with his son. Matt is our family bee keeper. He drives 2 1/2 hours one way to take care of our bees! Thanks Matt.

Matt and his son are "walking" around the greenhouse and checking things out. Matt built his own greenhouse at his place for this spring. He and his wife have a big garden and their own bees. I was lucky enough to get honey from them for Christmas this year. So yummy!

Enjoying the warmth in the greenhouse. Sweet little man!

He is checking out the greenhouse tomatoes. They have grown a lot. 

He wants to know what EVERYTHING tastes like :)

Grins before loading up and driving 2 1/2 hours back home. Little guy is always smiling!

Peppers have gotten huge! They will be transplanted to 4 inch pots soon.

The greenhouse is getting greener and greener as things grow.

Parsley we started from seed has grown enough to be outside.

Golden beets on the right, red beets on the left. They will be okay with cold nights, too.

The "beautifulness" of a newly plowed field. We don't plow every year. This turns the soil at least a foot deep. Reddish hue of budding blueberries in the background.

March 17 Seeds and Flowers

Lisa writes tags. Large leafed cucumber plants at her elbow. Flats waiting to be filled stacked in the background.

My niece Angie with her daughter in the OSU sweatshirt. Planting lettuce seeds. I think my great niece may have written the tag!

Zinnia seeds just before they are covered up. They look like arrowheads!

A few seeds have found their homes in the 50 cell flats. The plastic covers are on the seeds that are planted on top of the soilless mix. Some seeds need light to germinate. Without the covers they dry out before they can germinate and then the seeds die.

Basil is smelling delicious. When it gets a little larger it will be planted in the soil filled wooden boxes in the background. Basil loves heat.

Red stemmed beets get a head start in the greenhouse. They will be planted out into the raised beds once they can stand the weather.

Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower plants that were started in the greenhouse. These plants don't mind cool temperatures. They will even survive a freeze. Florencio has all the drip irrigation set up, too.

Mom and Dad enjoyed flowers in all seasons. Flowering cherry trees, daffodils and tulips are enjoying the weather. Mom's row of rose bushes to the left. Drip irrigation once again is present.

The flowering cherry tree even has blooms on its trunk!

Planting Day March 5

My niece Anna and her young man prepare holes to drop seeds.

Additional helpers enjoy the warmth of the greenhouse. In the back corner, my sister Lisa, nearest to the front is my friend Mary, 2nd from the left is my mother in law, Mary, in purple is my cousin Faith. Lots of seeds spread out on the table to plant. Chatter with family is fun, occasional rain on the greenhouse roof. 

My great niece who lives at The Farm, has been helping! Look at those farmgirl hands.

This plethora of seeds await planting.  

Florencio fills up seed starting flats with a soilless, sterile seed starting mix. He wets the mix as part of the mix repels moisture so it needs to be pre-watered.

Dirt movers at work. :)

Tiny coleus seeds.

Farm activities begin 2014

Lisa, Anna and the kiddos "pruned" the curly willow tree. Angie and Anna are hanging the beautiful branches so they will dry a little straighter. Possible additions to bouquets this coming summer.

She is almost one, conked out and gets to nap in the warm greenhouse. Notice the watering can behind her so she won't roll off!

Florencio planted these peas. February 19th they were moved outside. We are hoping they survive and there will be early peas to eat. A taste of spring.

The little ones checking out the spinach that popped up! Dried peppers from last year rest on the hardware cloth counter.

All hands on deck. They are good helpers!

Very small flower seeds. This is all that came in this packet.

These little seeds Lisa planted with tweezers. She has good concentration! She planted these on February 4th. We were at the Farm on the 19th and they had germinated!!! When we went to check them out we were surprised they had come up so fast. The package says 4-5 weeks. We rock :)

My turn to plant with tweezers. And when you just think you may have let them go from the tweezers, you can't tell because they look like dirt!

Another little one gets in on the action. We are so fortunate to have a warm place to plant. And dry.

Love our little OSU girl's dinosaur hat.

A few of the seeds we started on Feb. 4th. All were up by Feb. 19th. We are trying celery this year. Hmmm.

Anna planting pepper seeds. We sowed about 800 pepper seeds on Feb. 19th. 25 different varieties. The walkie talkie next to the flat is for kidlet communications. :)

Basil likes it very warm. We started these on Feb. 4th in hopes of having basil growing in the greenhouse raised beds and ready to harvest for the first boxes.

An early cabbage looks happy!

Some leaves have been trimmed on the left side, critters in the greenhouse. Fungus gnats and/or mice. We are dealing with these guys. Sticky traps for fungus gnats and flip like traps with peanut butter for the furry guys.

Parsley up and growing. The "cotyledons" aren't frilly like the true leave will be. Cotyledons will fall off once the true leaves take over photosynthesis. 

Onions two weeks after planting. They even smell good!

These are Sweet William flower seeds that are coated in clay. Without the coating they are like dust particles. There were 32 seeds in this container.

Two different types of bunching onion seeds. They will be covered with a thin layer of sterile germination mix.

She is awake and eating a brown graham cracker, not dirt (at least this time anyway!). And she is walking all over the greenhouse.

Week 18, September 24, 2013

The last of the beautiful carrots.

The white alysum and colorful nasturtiums with
lily pad type leaves are loving this weather.

Caught Florencio off guard while he washed the bell peppers. Green, red, light yellow, and purple ones.

Pretty assortment of eggplant.

Also the end of the potatoes.
I do love a plate of purple mashed potatoes!

Peppers ready for the boxes.

Asparagus ferns are healthy and providing food for the roots for next year's crop.

They catch the rain in a delicate way.

This new sunflower looks like it is running against the wind. The layers of this are all so many different colors.

The new row of sunflowers Lisa planted later than the others this summer. They are perfect to pick right now! They others have become bird food.

Colorful Swiss Chard.

Traditional green chard with asparagus ferns in the background.

Two kinds of kale.

The first planting of red kale. Some will lose their heads today to go into the flower bouquets with sunflowers. :)

The sun came out and made this bed of chard SHINE!

Our large volunteer sunflower is sooo very heavy with seeds.

The Zinnias. Ahhh, the zinnias. Love their persistent brightness.

In the new raised beds. These "black eyed Susan" varieties are thriving. They were so little when we planted them, we apparently didn't plan on them growing so large in one summer.

Sugar pumpkins staying out of the weather next to my brother's cider press.

Lisa and I picked and washed these on Sunday. It was raining then, too. They have had time to dry out. The Cinderella and white pumpkins are favorites of mine.

Oh and the little orange pumpkins are cute, too.

These striped white and orange ones are a nice change, too. The spaghetti squash in the background store well.

The birds have helped themselves to the corn. Must be tasty!

Sometimes picking corn in mud and a tangle can be a challenge.

A cart full of fall beauty.

Lisa adding to her pretty flower collection.

A cucumber beetle walks around on this sunflower.

A pretty handful from ONE stem.

This is how a branching sunflower grows.

A wonderful fall collection.

A few Asian pears left to pick today.

Another type of pear.

Sunflowers and zinnias. Oh my gosh, how pretty!

This cloud mass looked scary. We had about 15 minutes before its rain hit.

And then in poured.

Heading for cover, notice the rain tumbling off the roof on the left.

Taken from inside the blue roofed potting shed. Again, notice the rain flowing off the roof on the right.

Given these conditions, we decided lunch on Grandma Daisy's porch was a great idea!

Lisa and Anna had decided we needed Grandma Daisy's favorite lunch. Lisa had made homemade bread the day before. We were treated to fry bread, thin sliced potatoes fried in just salt, with tomatoes and onion to build our own sandwiches. Coffee with all kinds of options and finish it all off with pumpkin cake. Wow.

Lisa and her granddaughter share a moment.

Happy girl (my great niece) is wearing her pumpkin hat!

A late delphinium has caught raindrops. I'd like to say I did something cool with this picture to get the blackish edges. But, no, my camera was so wet the lens had stuck!

Red kale catches rain drops.

One of the last kohlrabi.

Sunflowers, kale, daisies. 

Angie carting in one of the 6 loads of corn stalks. We were a bit damp at this point. (Read that as "soaking wet".) But working hard enough we didn't get cold. Notice her smile? We have a pretty good time here on the Farm.

Bundled corn stalks awaiting pick up.

Lisa had the great idea to get them out of the weather. Car rides home might be a tad drier that way!

Our 18 weeks has come to an end. A little celebration of all the bounty. Pumpkin cake, warm apple cider from the Farm. Hmmmm. A wonderful way to end our great summer. Thanks for being part of it!