In 2011 we had several major projects on the farm. A large berm along the road planted with conifers to give us some privacy was installed by Gee Farms. We had chosen several species and cultivars to give us a variety of textures and colors. These included weeping Alaskan cedars, Arborvitae, Hemlocks, Serbian spruce, Stone pine, Fraser firs, and Concolor firs. We had visited
Gee farms early in March of 2011 and picked out the individual trees to be installed. One of the highlights of the trip was finding a short eared owl nestled among the conifers in the field.
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| Short-eared Owl |
One other major project was the kitchen garden. We had planted a small raised bed with tomatoes, squash, peppers and cucumbers at the farm in the spring. What we really wanted was a larger area to grow more varieties and new vegetables. After visiting many homes on house walks and summer events in Harbor country, we decided to build a kitchen garden behind the existing house. Geordan spent most of the summer designing the space and the location of the various beds, gates and pergolas. We started construction in late summer. A huge truckload of lumber had arrived and was placed in the middle of the driveway. We spent many weekends working at cutting, drilling and screwing the boxes together.
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| The Kitchen Garden in early construction phase |
Our friend Kieran assisted on several visits, as well as our friend Tom Dunn. Additionally, we had visits by many friends during construction, Steve & Jerry supervised for a Sunday afternoon. Our neighbors Rick and Sandy made sure we stayed hydrated by announcing 'Beer Break' and arriving with the traditional Miller Lite each weekend. Many hours and sore Monday mornings later we are in the final phases of construction for the kitchen garden. Our winter project has been measuring the box tops for trim and finalizing our selections for planting. We anticipate that construction will be complete in time for planting season. The final touches of gravel walkways and an irrigation system will be installed once the soil is stable enough to allow heavy equipment to be driven on the yard.
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Kitchen Garden final phase
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This winter we have begun dreaming and selecting the seeds to grow in the garden. Geordan has been enthralled by the
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds catalog. He has chosen seven varieties to order, as we have decided on growing a total of eight. His choices are Green Zebra, Violet Jasper, German Lunchbox, Beauty Queen, Tigerella, Black Cherry and Tess's Land Race Currant. My choice, Sun Gold, has been a traditional variety we have grown in our Earthboxes in the city for several years. They are sweet, juicy and delicious. They taste like everything good about summer captured by the sun in a little fruit. We plan on starting the seeds under grow lights in the basement at the farm. Between birthdays and Christmas we have acquired the lights, heat mats and timers needed to start our seeds. Additionally, we will start cucumbers, basil, zucchini, and butternut squash.
We decided to order from 3 additional companies to round out our seed choices.
Gurneys was the traditional choice of my Grandmother. I loved looking looking at the catalog when I was a little boy. They even sold chickens through the mail. One of my favorite spring expectations was the 1cent seed packet they offered. It said it was just for kids and contained a collection of all sorts of garden seeds. I envisioned a loyal Gurney employee carefully selecting 1 or 2 seeds from each large bin of seeds in the Gurney factory. They would gently place them in the seed packet and ship it with Grandma's order. In retrospect, a weary employee probably sweeps up the floor after a long day of seed packing and places a portion of the sweepings in the paper envelope that I anticipated each spring.
Territorial Seed Company was another company we supported. I liked their catalog and they had an interesting section of grafted vegetables. Finally, we ordered from
R.H. Shumway's Garden Guide. Their catalog has an old timey feel which made me envision a sweet family farm sited in the dells of Wisconsin. Don't disillusion me if you know they are a division of Monsanto, bent on the destruction of the earth. I need that little bit of nostalgia.
All these seeds and all the catalogs are a definite sign that spring is coming. It gives us all hope that the green leaves and spring flowers are just waiting to burst forth when the opportunity arrives. I will keep you posted on our seed planting mission and hopefully have a full report on our tomato choices once they provide us with their fruit.
