Tucking in for the Winter

splitting wood

 

...and cleaning up after dinner

 

 

were only two of the things are latest Wwoofers excelled at.

 

 

Seriously, two harder working, more self-motivated people would be impossible to find.  We never expected to see someone split as much wood by hand as we did with the wood-splitting machine which we had purposely rented to make the job easier--especially as we were hoping to get the wood that I'd chain-sawed cut up and stored for our next couple of winters.  But it happened seamlessly.  And with the weather changing so suddenly, it's a very good thing.  Somehow, I forgot to record Mackensey's effort on film...I mean phone.

We just had our first storm of the season, and when we say storm, we are talking 50-60 mile-an-hour winds and probably some even higher-speed gusts.  One thing folks don't realize about the Oregon coast is just how BIG the winds can be.

 

As a way of saying 'thank you' to the Wwoofers who have made their way thru in 2013, we also share this amazing area in a day trip that takes them to various spots along our coast, especially a location known as "Secret Beach"  as well as a walk in the redwoods just over the state border in California. 

 

 Usually we see seals here that are checking us out as we walk along the beach, but this time we were fortunate enough to see a sea otter swimming from rock to rock, sunning at each stop.  The rock formations and natural land bridges make this place even more of a mini-national park.

 

 

 

 



 

the 2 Wwoofers you should have seen in an August posting

the post that never was...this would have happened in August


Hi folks:

It's been a LONG time.  What happened recently is indicative of my ongoing challenge with technology.  I keep hoping that there really is an easy, INTUITIVE way to do this.

MY PHONE CRASHED.
Guess where my photos of the August Wwoofers went?  For some reason, the % download was going nowhere! and the photos still may be out there somewhere in the blogosphere, but we'll never know.  I'm hoping that Danny and Robyn from Seattle will send me some photo update of both of them.  I believe that our September sisters from Otego, New York will be featured as I've seen two emails that I sent to myself in the office come thru.

However it won't show the amazing work Danny did in configuring the two gates that now open and close the garden and make it much more accessible, or the rope-flags Robyn sowed together on what must have seen endless rope to deter the deer further from entry and to creat a much more festive space.  Of course, they also did a fair amount of gardening in helping to create a more productive space than last year.

Thank you two and hope that you're escaping this crap weather we've been having of late.  These two are presently on their Denver leg of the trip and I can only assume that they are crossing the desert sooner than originally planned on their bicycles.

a quick catch-up...

Just to let you all know that we are alive and well and the garden is thriving--well, maybe except for the beets and the caulis--again!  I've indicated that it's the pH and I'm planning on testing to see if the lime we've been adding has made the difference.  Supposedly, the cauliflower likes acidic conditions, so maybe it's something else we've not figured out.  Hopefully, we'll also have better luck with our garlic as well this year.

We did get a late start this year given the weather and my luck with cold frames so I'm hoping that is just a one-time struggle.  Our tomatoes definitely look more promising than last year, so hopefully we'll get a bumper on those.  However, I've noticed that most peoples' are pretty slow this year.

One of the things that we've been contemplating is how to go forward in replanting areas that we just logged.  One of the ways in which I hope to get a jump on the reforestation process is by digging up trees already growing on our land that have an established root system, and of course replanting in early autumn to get the best possible root growth.  We also are trying to cut as much firewood from what was forested as scrap and will probably invite some neighbors to partake as well so as to minimize our waste in all of the piles of slash to burn this winter.

Don't discount the pHriggin' pH and the soil temp!

While I wait for everything to get growing, I'd like to share something that recently occurred to me.  Talk about the light coming on!

Last year, as I discussed last posting, was a rush job.  I returned from New Zealand at the end of May, visited family in Arizona and Colorado, and finally planted up seeds, most of which were cheap, end-of-the-season giveaways with what I considered a modicum of success.  Most my seedlings grew quickly and happily, much to my pleasure and bit of surprise.  But the soil temps are much warmer given that extra month.  That being said, the tomatoes never quite got there as the season was too short.  And even though we live inland, the temps weren't all that warm.

Enter soil acidity and alkalinity...after more research, a bit of thought, but especially lots more observation, I believe that  I did indeed have a lot of wimpy plants more on account of too low a pH (scientific abbreviation for parts of Hydrogen).  Instead of TRYING to go into the science of it all, I'll just direct you to Wikipedia...what happens is that the chemistry of the soil is changed in such a way as to make it difficult for plants to take up or find available nutrients.

Anyhow, having soils with a pH of 5--which IS quite acidic--definitely affected the growth of the plants (although berries love it, and my strawberries do look quite happy!).  A lot of the brassicas I planted at the end of the summer, which should have done quite well, looked very wimpy.  The kale and especially the broccoli were quite a disappointment, and other plants like snap peas, carrots and beets grew quite slowly--or not at all. 

SO, I limed like hell!  Well, at least many who observed the whitish soil thought so.  And, what is crazy is that I did it twice--in the autumn and in the spring.  The goal is to bring the pH up to a point where I'll be able to successfully grow these veggies. 

So, even though I have this great sandy loam, if the chemistry of the soil isn't right, I will end up still having problems.  I do have one advantage having a soil high in organics, however.  The decaying matter serves as a 'buffer', which helps in retaining the calcium in the lime and keeping it from washing away, which will hopefully mean that the pH will change more quickly and the less acidic conditions should persist longer.  

One last thing, but VERY important, is when I began looking at what the pH ranges were for various veggies, I did find that most of what didn't do so great was, in fact, looking for more alkaline conditions.  That is probably why some of my plants, especially the potatoes and pumpkins did so well.  They were much more appreciative of lower pH than their fellow veggies.

A seedy ending

It had to happen.
The garden space is now compete.

And the way it went down was that most of the planting that took place was direct seeding.  So this should be an interesting season.

As a result of the cold frames being a bomb, with my first Wwoofers of the year, Alysia (from Belgium) and Heather (from McMinville, OR--my closest Wwoofer yet), we were able to weed, degrass (The hardest part was getting out all of those deeply-embedded, sharp-ended perennial grass roots.), and plant up this year's garden.  Outside of a few cabbage starts, nearly everything was seed.  We also planted out some potato starts and dahlia tubers which loved it and took immediately.

The May Wwoofers: Alysia & Heather

Last year, the first year back at Cloudplay, you may remember that NO SEEDS were planted out until the end of June--and that was in trays!  But again, as last year, we've had lots of moisture after the seeds were put in.  So I am hoping for the best.  There were a lot of brassicas peeking through early and some peas that were planted earlier are looking fairly vigorous.

As can be seen in the picture, we finished degrassing the side of the path on which Heather is standing, and because the grass was even more established on the side on which Alysia is standing, I decided to 'half-plant' out some pumpkin and squash seeds in mounds on the grassy side and to do the grass-extraction with my June Wwoofers (Hopefully they're not reading this ahead of time!).  As the soil is sandy loam and we have had a moderately dry winter, it's not nearly as messy a job as it sounds.

Lessons learned on cold frames

I was sssssssssso proud to have nearly completed a set of cold frames this winter so as to get an early start on my garden.  A picture would tell 1000 words, but that is why it is especially wise that I have not included one with this entry, because the cold frames are empty!

What actually has transpired will explain my predicament...

On the plus side, I was able to make a set of five cold frames, three of which had entire old window sashes I recycled and attached to some really nice 10" wide, 2" thick (Sorry to all of you who are metric out there--which is the majority of the world, but am back to good ole US measurements.) rough cedar planks that I bought at a great price at our local hardware store.  So I thought that I was set; I was NOT.

I thought that I'd also be following Steve Solomon's advice and be way ahead of the game for planting out this spring.  The cold frames are meant to provide extra heat and protection from the elements that will allow you to extend the growing (and eating!) season.

The cold frames were built fairly quickly and easily.  I did make one mistake in measuring which was a bit frustrating, but no big deal. So, here was the fiasco which unfolded shortly after completing construction and trying to use these things:

Mistake #1
Thinking that tilting my frames a bit toward the sun would be a benefit, I built them into the side of our road bank (permaculture technique in action!), soon realizing that water did not have time to soak in the soil before running down the trays.

Mistake #2 (closely tied to #1)
I bought cheap ACE hardware soil that almost repelled water.  It was definitely not seed raising mix.  So much for getting by cheaply...

Mistake #3
I did not open the lids after planting out my seeds.  I had hoped to have early lettuce; that has not happened as they shriveled and/or disappeared. I only had weeds growing in the shadows in the box.  I even thought I'd be clever and try lettuce covered and uncovered--well, at least the box with the window sash covering and heating up a bit got the seeds started.

Mistake #4 (closely tied to #3)
I did not water enough either.

Mistake #5
Well they just keep on coming...in one box (where fortunately nothing was growing anyway) a gopher or ground squirrel had a hayday!  And here I thought that I was so clever by stapling ground cloth--instead of hardware cloth, which is what I should have used--on the bottom, which was meant to keep the slugs and snails out.  Well there at least have been NO slugs or snails!

Whereto from here?
Adjustment #1
Has been to raise the bottom edge of the beds to make them flatter.  Unfortunately, the water keeps running off the trays, so I really need to plant up with proper seed-raising mix.

Adjustment #2
LOTS OF BLOCKS.  I use them to hold open the frames a few inches, and that has made a huge difference in the plants growing in trays surviving the heat. I have found it best to just keep the sashes open a bit at all times, because it is too easy to forget to open AND water if they are closed.

Adjustment #3
AND FINALLY, I have decided to use some old composted horse manure (which I was warned to not use this year in my garden until it has another year to breakdown) to mix in with the top couple inches of soil to attempt to create an environment where lettuce and herbs will thrive--well, we'll see!  After all, it is unused space.

So another experiment is at hand.  I did mix in lime and the 'doctor's' organic fertilizer to create a hopefully even more ideal environment in which roots will take hold.  

I'll let you know what has transpired soon.

One last thanks to last years Wwoofers...

Noel & Angelita

Matt & Luke

Steve and Cooper

Sandy & Danny--b4 and after

All 8 of these young folks helped hugely in creating our present space and place where we are today, and I just want to thank each and every one of them for their contributions in 2012.



I look forward to a great year again.  We're almost full at this point, except for October.  Who knows, perhaps we actually might have chickens and goats by then!

Finally back--Do What You Can Do!

Master Gardeners with a view

Almost 3 weeks after the final Master Gardener class, I am finally blogging again!  

Just in case there is anyone unfamiliar with Master Gardeners, it's a program supported by OSU Extension throughout the state of Oregon in which the university works to reach people who don't have easy access to resources and education available on campus.  It is a way for the university to provide research-based information to the general public at very little expense as it counts on folks who take the Master Gardener Program at our Curry County Extension Agency to volunteer in various ways.

 At least the daffodils look good!

So, yes, there is a lot of time that has been focused on the MG program this winter, and I am 

(: hopefully :) going to be getting back to some norm of reporting things on the 'stead a bit more regularly in the future...

This winter was largely spent on putting things back in order after being away for over 6 years and making the place more livable--which will be great for all of the Wwoofers who make their way through over the next few months.

One of the biggest tasks re the garden was/is finishing the deer fence.  This was especially important--and troublesome, in that it had not been completed as one of the tasks that I WAS on top of was the installation of the orchard, which was planted up in late January when I was able to pick up the trees and put them in while they were dormant.  All it would have taken was one over-zealous deer (NOT to mention the lone elk we saw creeping down the slope next to our home one day that was tentatively checking out all of my brassicas !).

SO, the fence is almost in and hopefully I'll be sincerely back to gardening next week again.  What that will entail is adding lots of lime, and the WEEDING!  Let's keep that to dreams (or is it nightmares???) until it actually occurs.

But just like the 3rd grade teacher from Tennessee told me before my first year of teaching years ago: "Do what you can do"...because what else can you do?

Plants don't kid themselves...

 we here go again...this time with the cover!

Plants don’t kid themselves…

…about the state of the world, substituting fantasy for reality the way we humans do.   And thus begins Steve Solomon’s guide to “Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades”.  Steve is not a man to mince words, and so he gets my immediate admiration.

Throughout his book, he talks about going about doing things in a way that really works—not in the way we would hope it to.  Thus he separates out those he calls the “capital O” organic from himself and those who may follow a more practical way of growing; from the beginning with Steve, gardening is not for the wishful thinkers or those too religious about their points of view to take on methodologies that actually make sense when the hoe meets the soil.

I was fortunately turned on to this book when I wasn’t as determined to grow my own as I am right now.  There were definitely numerous seeds planted in my mind along with a slough of experience that aided me in picking up the book for real upon my return from New Zealand.  Sometimes, we just aren’t ready yet.

And Steve definitely did the hard miles, learning from those who grew plants for serious profit—you’ve got it (those which he calls “capital G” growers)—and we’re not talking vegetables.  Because of the value of their crops, they will push the individual plants to the limit.  He learned from them that most plant growth will be reduced to the level of the component in shortest supply; this can be anything that affects plant growth: soil and its many components, the climate—including how much and how often it rains and the sun shines, the amount of competition from their fellow plants, and how clever we are in the manipulation and control of these elements.

He immediately dives into plant basics and botany, how to create optimum results for what is actually a totally unnatural phenomenon in nature, to weed-- or not to, about thinning for success, the facts of light, rate of increase in growth given light and soil temps, and a ‘word on tools’.  Not only does he hugely challenge conventional ways of thinking but is sacrilegious as to whom he targets.

No one is safe, well, except possibly for his plants…

 

FINALLY!

i've been trying forever to copy this photo so that you all could see what I'm writing about.  but, because it's close to dinner (AND I DON'T WANT TO GO THRU THE POSSIBILITY OF LOSING THIS IMAGE AGAIN!), i'm stopping here for tonight--but I WILL RETURN!

It really has taken me forever to load this book cover...I promise that I wasn't intending to plageurize anybody...or thing.

So, next blog will be about the things I'd like to share with you from this author.