We have one garden plot that will be just tomatoes. It is a shame that Megan is allergic to them and cannot enjoy all the different flavors from all the different varieties. That doesn’t stop her from planting new varieties. I’m not sure how many colors are planted this year but I don’t pick tomatoes – ripe doesn’t necessarily mean red with Megan’s plants.

Preparing the tomato bed – and hardening off seedlings. The bed was rototilled and mounded just like the rest of the beds. Unlike the rest of the garden beds it will have permanent trellis supports installed. Tomatoes are one of the few vegetables that like to be planted in the same place year after year. As long as the soil gets a good dose of compost in between growing seasons.

Due to the wind the trellis supports are fairly well interred – end posts with buried dead heads, three posts in the row, three rows of taunt wire, four foot stakes well-hammered and tied to the cross wires – in a hope of helping the tomatoes flourish despite our constant wind.

With the new irrigation tape (YAY) there is one stake every 60 cm – or two feet – creating spacing for about 450 tomato plants.

Megan has about 400 tomato seedlings to plant, about fourteen different kinds this year. She currently has about 150 planted. It’s late to plant. But our last frost was in late October – so better planted late than dead from a cold snap. With the crazy weather the seedlings are such a variety of sizes that produce is going to be varied. With the dry weather – and drying wind – the only reason we have any chance of a summer tomato harvest is the drip irrigation that allows us to deep water the roots even when the wind blows and dries out the top soil.  Hopefully this summer crop will do better than last year.

Typically Uruguay has three distinct seasons – four if you want to count the very brief period of almost-winter where frost is possible. At least that’s how Megan feels as someone who grew up with snow (i.,e. Real Winter). This past year we’ve kind of lumped eight whole months into Drought and skipped the typical seasons. But with the resumption of irregular precipitation (the weatherman LIED, it was NOT a wet spring) we tentatively planned on a spring. Which has sped by ridiculously quick. So quick in fact we never really got a chance to talk about it. And so, before we mention the lovely summer vegetables that are being seeded, here’s a look at what we planted in spring. (Or, more correctly, planted in late spring because the once warm winter weather went cold and didn’t warm up enough to plant. Why no, Megan wasn’t bitter at all.)

The switch from Spring to Summer was abrupt – one day it was too cold to put out the tomatoes and the next the greenhouses had an internal temperature of 42C (107F) and the spring vegetables are ready to be harvest all at once – even when you are not ready for them to be harvested.  The lettuce has been delicious, we have had a few varieties to enjoy, and about the time I thought we were going to have Romaine lettuce for a Caesar Salad, it bolted!  It was quickly joined by the Roxy lettuce, and the butter lettuce. All three were in the greenhouses, of course, Oh well, the chickens have really enjoyed them.  The lettuce outside is holding on a bit longer but will shortly be ready to be cleared and summer vegetables planted. The beet harvest is starting (Jon is very happy about this), the mustard is starting to go to seed (Megan is hoping for home-made mustard), the Kale has gone to the chickens and who knows what the Broccoli, Cauliflower, and Cabbages are up to – they’ve neither bolted nor headed up.

Here are a few garden pictures:

What we’ve been harvesting isn’t quite the same as the garden beds – the greenhouses – which are now over-hot – provided summer vegetables in spring.

velour beans that turn green when you cook them, sweet and tender (with the high temps are now just pretty leafy plants – did you know that green beans don’t flower or set pods above 32C (90F)?)

Burran Sweet peppers – but the peppers are happy with the heat and are setting lots of flowers and fruit. With regular water they are very content with the saunas that are the greenhouses.

Zucchini and more peppers. Did you know that a normal, small, bushy zucchini plant goes a bit wild in a greenhouse? The greenhouse plants are nearly three times taller than their normal outside counterparts. Megan didn’t quite plan for that and is cursing them at the moment. But the zucchini sure is tasty.

Cucumbers, planted in spring, but really, until the greenhouse heats up, they don’t even consider flowering, let along fruiting. They’ve decided it’s hot enough now and have started to yield lots of tasty fruit for pickling. Megan doesn’t even have seed for slicing cucumbers so all of our cucumbers are pickles.

Megan is busy planting, weeding, and harvesting.  We all are enjoying the veggies of her hard work. The irrigation system for the greenhouses has been a lifesaver. The main garden irrigation is nearly complete – otherwise there will be no summer vegetables.

Between the weather and pure neglect the fact that the trees we planted last year are still alive this year is a miracle.  Then to discover that the hardy little things are not only budding out, but flowering – and in some cases fruiting – is amazing!  The almond trees, which, if asked we’d have said were dead twigs, have actually set a few fruit. Here are our first almonds:

Maybe someday we will get enough almonds to be able to make almond flour. This year we’re just relieved the trees are alive.

The garden plots in the quinta are doing their own thing.  We had planted a crop of wheat and a crop of rye grass thinking to cut and feed the animals over winter, but it didn’t decide to grow until now.  So we have been cutting it to feed the rabbits.

We cleaned part of a plot to get ready for the next.

Roto tilled and then made planting rows in another plot.

Continued to let the forage beets grow in this plot.  But currently we are picking them and feeding the pigs.

The peas are growing nicely.  We are getting fresh peas for supper, enough for two.  Which is plenty because I don’t like peas. The canned peas available in the grocery store are rehydrated peas. So fresh peas are a treat for Jon and Megan.

It is nice to grow our own vegetables and eat some things that we cannot get in the produce section.  We are still getting tomatoes and bell peppers from the green house. We only have a few spaghetti squash left from our stash and the garden plot for squash and melons is almost ready.

We made some planters right off the front patio with plans to have an herb garden.  So while we are waiting for some herbs to germinate and for the weather to accommodate others, we decided to plant the area and stop weeding it.  So Megan chose a few types of vegetables that might like semi shade and wind and roof water dew and planted.  Then the wind came and stayed along with the birds.  So netting went up.

Rosemary is the green clumps you can see along the edge .

Then the plants were large enough that we could take down the netting.

We have been able to harvest radishes and spinach from the beds.  We have peas and mint and parsley growing.  It has been fun to walk out the door and trim a few springs of rosemary for our lamb dinner.

It is interesting to note how our daily, weekly, monthly plans change according to the weather.  We have lived in places that as long as we dressed for the weather and the activity, the weather did not stop us from doing things,  Well, as the weather changes, so do our activities. We had a warm dry winter and are now having a wet windy and sometimes cold spring.  Our plants are trying to thrive but the weeds seem to be succeeding better than our seedlings.

One of our green houses is our workshop.  We are trying to start seeds there and then plant them where they might survive the best.  Megan makes compost, then soil blocks, then plants the seeds, waters and waits. and waits and waters. and opens and closes green house doors to regulate the greenhouse temperature and ventilation.

The netting is to prevent the wrens from eating the tender shoots,  They are small birds and get through the smallest cracks and create huge damage.  When there is no pasture growing, the only green is in the green house.

With spring comes a new chance for new crops.

Never ending process, planting.  Megan now has all eight garden plots planted, or should I say in production.  Three plots have actual rows where specific items were seeded, the other five all have been scatter seeded with wheat or a combination of Rye grass and clover in an effort to have something to feed the animals this winter.  We have been putting up short stakes with rope to keep the dogs out.  It works well since last year it was electrical tape.  We have trimmed the walkway paths and we almost look like we know what we are doing.

Of course, we are also planting the green houses, so there is a lot of garden work to keep doing.

Even without a lot of water this summer, but with a lot of heat, we have tangerines on two of our citrus  trees.  This is the first of our citrus to produce.  The tree looks very scraggly to even support the fruit, but it did!  The tangerine was a little tart but delicious.

As with everything else on the farm, things are slowly happening.  Maybe next year we will see our lemons and limes.