Belated Father’s Day Greetings

I hope all the dads out there had a happy Father’s Day.  It was a busy day here on the homestead, what with the kids having hockey camps and such, but I got to spend a lot of time with my kids and that’s what it’s all about. 

Spending time with them and seeing how they have changed did get me to looking around at what has been happening around here.  So much has gone on since this spring.  Our winter squash is HUGE!  We did 4 foot high box trellises on 5 of the 6 plants and the 2 feet hanging over the top on most tells me we didn’t go high enough.  I also just cleaned out the snap peas.  It seems like it wasn’t that long ago that I was writing about cold crops and yet we have harvested a ton of peas and have replaced those plants with cauliflower.  The timing of the snap peas finishing up was providential as I was able to move their trellising to the first group of cucumbers needing it.

I also want to take this time to rat out the Web Mistress.  After having to issue a correction as to her willingness and ability to defend the homestead from marauding rabbits I take it all back.  Yesterday, as we were preparing for church, in the middle of a garden I spied Peter the Great.  I called for the Web Mistress to keep an eye on him as I went for my gun and was met with a host of reason why we should let him live.   Argh….We will meet again Peter, and I might just be alone!

Anyways, I hope your summer is off to a good start.  Don’t forget to like us on Facebook and Twitter.  Until next time.

Andy

Cold Crops

With the frost on the ground the last couple of days I am certainly glad we have waited to put most of our vegetables in until Mother’s Day.  We did, however, get a raised bed going for some cold hearty plants.  The snap peas and radishes are up and doing well.  The carrots, lettuce, kale and broccoli are all showing signs they want to grow.  The carrots and snap peas each got their own 4x2 section of the bed, while the other 4x4 section was divided into triangular plots for the rest of the plants.

I built the bed using untreated 2x6x8s.  This gave me a nice 4x8 bed, the frame of which was then treated using boiled linseed oil.  The linseed oil helps to preserve the wood but is nontoxic, a must when working on projects which are going to be part of your food supply. 

We sowed all of the plants in this bed directly in the soil.  I do have a ton of plants started and under grow lights, more on those a bit later.  The radishes are from Ferry-Morse and the rest are heirloom seeds from Mountain Valley which I purchased at Costco.  So I will see how these brands do and let you know.

My only real worry so far has been rabbits.  I haven’t seen any signs of damage to the plants but have a trusty .22 at the ready.  One can only hope the Web-Mistress is a steely-eyed killer in the event Peter Rabbit shows himself while I’m not home.  Eventually I hope to get some fencing up when all of my raised beds are built.  Until then I can only hope that I get to share a recipe for rabbit stew in a future post.

Did you plant any cold tolerant vegetables?  How are they doing?  Send me some pictures and let me know what brand of seeds you used.

Andy