Thought I’d supply a little farming update. Lot’s of good things going on this week.

First off, we have a new addition around here. Moses the cat. He is the family cat but Abi got to pick him out and name him. We hope he becomes a heroic mouser. That’s the role we hired him to fill.

I was able to plant my asparagus bed. The crowns came in the mail and I didn’t even realize what they were. They looked like really long squid. Quite a root system. Anyway, the bed has been planted and we should see our first growth in the next couple of weeks. Here’s a link to a pictorial on how to plant asparagus and here’s a link to my other posting with just a few technical details.

We are experimenting with growing potatoes vertically. The ‘box’ is made out of cypress so it won’t rot. The potatoes are planted in the very bottom. As they grow you put dirt around them and keep adding sides to increase the height of the box. One gentleman in  Washington has grown 100 pounds of potatoes in one 2×2 spot. Here’s a picture of where we are right now. It’s almost time to add to the sides and put in more dirt. We have filled in about 6 inches so far on these. At the end of the season these should be totally full of potatoes. Might be a really good solution for people in the city with limited space.

Mandi has reestablished the strawberry beds. She really enjoys fresh strawberries. Right next to these is the herb bed. Fresh herbs are fun.

The blueberries are doing really well. I studied up on pruning at the end of winter and tried my best to prune them well. They seem to have established themselves very well. The bees were all over them pollinating and now the berries are forming. It’s really neat to see fruit growing that was pollinated by your own bees. I put out some chicken manure around them yesterday and it rained later. Will help the manure slowly work it’s way through the mulch into the soil.

Speaking of bees, this is what they look like on a damp morning. They don’t like coming out to go to work either.

The grapes are coming on as well. It always seems they are way behind everything else as far as putting out leaves. Then they just take off. You can see the little clusters here. Each spot will be a bloom and once pollinated will make a grape. I also put out some chicken manure around them and then some lime. Grapes don’t like acidic soil so it’s important to keep it more neutral. This variety is a seedless Concord.

This grape variety is my favorite. It taste good but that’s not why it’s my favorite. The land I live on is old family land. My great grandfather, grandfather, and father all grew up here and farmed it. I got this grape from my dad. When he was a kid he said the house these grapes were at was already gone. When I was little he went to the old home place out in the woods and got some of the vines and took them to his home. This year we transplanted this vine here so the grapes are back close to where they came from. He’s not sure what family lived at the old home where the grapes were and now that whole spot has been turned into a cow pasture.  We have the only vines that we know of. We’re not sure of the variety but they are a pink grape.

This is part of our tomatoes. I think we are going to have around 40 plants. These are growing on part of our terraces. We have several heirloom varieties and also lots of Romas for making sauce and canning.

This last picture is of our Bloodgood Maple. This was given to us by some good friends of ours and represents the covenant we have with them.  God is a covenant maker and keeper. Jesus came to be our representative with the Father and to make a covenant with God on our behalf. Marriage is also a covenant. David and Jonathan were in a covenant of friendship. Every covenant had a sign to remind the makers of it. This tree represents our covenant friendship.

Posted on May 3rd, 2009 by John
Filed under: Country Life