Despite the scarcity of rain my garden is growing decently. The produce is slowly increasing, but not much, and not a huge amount of variety. But little by little. And with lots of irrigation – which, I have to grump about, means spending five hours watering with a hose. A sprinkler system is getting pretty high on my list. But that is neither here nor there. So, progress in pictures:

We managed to get bed #4 (they are numbered by layout, not when plowed) prepared and planted:

This bed will be planted with raspberries come winter. Until then we planted melons and squash. Seedlings are just starting to poke up.

A third bed is just starting to be tilled.

We are inching along. With luck we’ll get all the intended beds prepared before winter rains stop any hope we have of preparing ground.

Some things at La Piccolina have become routine and we don’t think to share the everyday sameness, nor the routine seasonal activities.  But we are once again fighting the wind, rain, and heat to get this season’s garden planted.  We have yet to get the green house structure rebuilt, but we did manage to attack the weeds and soil and make rows and plant.  So here is how our garden grows:

To date we have planted: cucumbers, onions, mangles, swiss chard, green beans, soup beans, black beans, radishes. purslane, orach rose, carrots, thyme, basil, tomatoes, turnips, mustard, peppers, squash (spaghetti, futsu, queensland blue), zucchini, lemon squash, pole beans, corn, and cantaloupe. Now, this doesn’t mean they’ve all actually sprouted. But if it doesn’t get planted then there’s no chance of it growing.

We thought we would loose all our blooms with four unexpected days of heavy rain. We already received MORE than our annual rainfall BEFORE the last storm – in which we received 110 mm of rain. Lots of rain. Normally, tomatoes don’t like huge amounts of rain. However, we were fortunate that tomato plants are somewhat hardy given enough sunshine, support, and well, a raised bed. Our small little seedlings are growing into their cages as they start to have green fruit.  For all the different types Megan planted see tomatoes.

We should have a large variety of tomatoes that will harvest at different times, We also have some that will make excellent tomato sauce and tomato paste, one more thing to learn. If we can avoid more rain, keep them watered, and don’t end up with wildlife who decide they also like tomatoes.

Once again we were in the middle of a project and the tool broke.  Jon was using the roto-tiller to get the gardens beds ready for planting and the tines broke!

Look towards the top

So, after much discussion with several people, Jon just gave in and bought two new tines.  He said it is the best money he ever spent as these tines are so much better than the others.  It has made the work go faster.

It is that time of year to begin growing tomatoes. Okay, realistically it’s almost past time. But since we’ve had unexpected cold fronts past our ‘last frost date’ we aren’t as late as we should be.  Last year we didn’t plant tomatoes – the first year we were late – by several months – and the green house was way to hot, and we did not get tomatoes.  This year we were not sure if the seeds were viable, so of course, Megan planted more than necessary hoping a few would germinate.  Well, Megan has a green thumb and we got a lot more sprouts than expected.  We started them in the two inch block, moved them to a four inch block,

and then they actually made it into the ground. A couple of the varietals didn’t germinate – but more did than not. What finally made it into the garden are: Principe Borghese (a Roma type), Inigo Rose, Tang, Moskovich, Black Cherry, Yellow Pear Cherry, Schimming Hollow, Bloody Butcher, Mountain Princess, and Yellow Pear. Technically the last two aren’t in the ground yet. Because we need a few more tomato cages. Yep, we got smart this year.

Megan had the guys build her tomato cages.  They had never heard of such a thing.  They could not imagine how it worked or why tomatoes might need a cage.  But once it all was in the ground, they were amazed and thought it was an interesting idea.

Now, all we have to do is keep the patch weeded and watered.  We had enough tomato plants that we shared several with two of our neighbors.  Hopefully once they begin producing, we will have friends with which to share the fruit.

While it takes time to care for all the animals on the farm,  we are also working at getting a garden going.  It is a slow process to till the ground and then figure out what seeds can be planted in what season and what type of soil.  Then, once planted, we have to keep things watered and weeded and finally harvested.  So it seems there is always something needing to be done in the garden beds.

The next garden bed has been (almost) tilled. This is bed number two (technically it’s bed #4 but it’s the second bed tilled) and it has had the first pass with the roto-tiller and now needs a second pass before we can make rows and plant.  Every time it rains we have to wait for the ground to dry out before we can do anything.  This has been an unusually wet year. With the delay in preparations which seeds should be planted is a moving target. Megan is now spending considerable time rearranging her options.

She has lots of seeds to sort for consideration of what to plant next. It’s a fairly hefty seed stash given that most are things she’s never planted before.

The asparagus has been replanted, out of it’s pots and into the ground!  Special garden plots just for them.  Heavy straw around each plant keeps the weeds away and a bamboo marker next to each plant so we know it is an actual plant we want so I won’t accidentally pull it out thinking it is a weed and shouldn’t be there.  (Something I have been known to do.) So now we are on year two for the asparagus. We have had a lot of people interested in this slow growing vegetable.  Hope we make it to harvest in year three.

This picture is for our visitors’ from last January who sat on the porch and patiently harvested  seeds from the pods into a bowl.

Thank you ladies.

I’d love to say that my winter garden is growing like a weed. That we’re eating lots of healthy winter vegetables and that I’m well into preparing my spring garden beds. That would be so far from reality it’s not just sad, it’s scary. All of the summer rains meant that I needed to do some remedial preparation on the one tilled garden bed to be able to plant fall / winter vegetables. I have so far managed to dig three partial rows. Between the rest of the farm work and the winter rain (because it’s winter and that’s our rainy season) I’m still not much further along now than I was a couple of months ago. Less if you count the damage those nasty caterpillars did to my beets and rutabagas.

But I digress. I do have a few things planted. Those turnips which were not eaten my caterpillars are doing wonderfully. I have replanted some of the previously planted rows. The radishes, while weedy, are growing quite nicely. My carrots are slow to grow but it appears I will have a fabulous crop if nothing happens. They are doing so well I even needed to thin them!

The rabbits thought the carrot thinnings were candy. They vacuumed up the tops, then ate the bottoms. The only other thing I’ve seen them eat so quickly was the broccoli raab leaves.

I’m also slowly getting the walkways heavily mulched to keep down weeds. I am planning (hoping? praying?) for the rows to be fixed, which means I am using a more permanent mulching method. I have, to no one’s great surprise here on the farm, chosen to use waste wool to mulch my garden. One can never have too much wool.

One of our winter goals this year is to finish planting trees in the garden (quinta). We planted 48 fruit trees last year and lost half. So we are  planting replacement trees as well as the rest of the planned trees. That is if I can figure out where to buy them. But I digress.

At the top fence which separates the quinta and the main pasture we have always planned to plant carob trees (Ceratonia Siliqua). We thought we’d found some our first year but weren’t quite ready to plant them. Then last year when we thought we were ready we couldn’t find any. Carob trees aren’t all that popular down here – they are slow growing and can be messy. They also don’t transplant well if over a year old. They have a very vigorous tap root and the tree needs to be below a certain height to do well being replanted. Slow growing trees that need to be planted when they are still tiny don’t sell well in nurseries.

So last October I planted my own from seed. Carob seeds have a rather low germination rate so I planted 36 trees hoping to get 11. I ended up with 12 9mo. seedlings to plant. But one seedling is a bit sickly, so 11 it is.

They don’t look like much. But if I’m lucky and they survive we’ll have a row of trees at the top of the garden line. (Each tree is surrounded by 3 stakes. Which is the only way to tell that anything was planted until you step on them!)