Freezing with a forecast of Blast furnace

So this was going to be one of our big transplanting weekends, but after the Friday night frost (which killed the whole row of radishes that had just came up that day) and the forecast for another frost Saturday night, temps in the high 80s for Monday and 60 m/h winds on Tuesday (blast furnace?) we decided to wait.  After spending most of the weekend rotating sprinklers (it is so dry here this spring!), we decided it's finally time to invest in that irrigation system.  Josh will be ordering the drip lines today and we're hoping to be able to hook it up in the next week or so.  Hopefully this saves us time and water this summer.

Besides watering this weekend and replanting radishes, here's what we did in the gardens...

• Moved the chicks outside

Olue filling the water

Once they discover Josh is catching them, they all pile in the far corner of the coop.

Loading them into our 4-wheeler trailer.

John, Olue, and Jeremiah watching Josh loading the chicks.

 We have 4 movable pens for our butcher chickens.  They move through the orchard, fertilizing and eating grass as they go.  Butcher chickens can only obtain about 20% of their diet from grass, so we also give them a ration of a ground feed of grains and mineral.  We move them once a day for them to get fresh grass and clean bedding.

I don't have any pictures of the chickens in the pens because I helped Josh unload them and then it was Jeremiah's bedtime (you can see he's not thrilled in the above pic).

• Prepped the rows for transplants

Tilling the rows for cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage & kohlrabi.

Placing the pipe for the row cover.

When we finally get to transplanting (after the winds die down and it's not so hot and sunny-probably this weekend) we will mark out 3 rows under the pipes, then stagger plant each row, water and cover with the row cover.  The row cover allows water and sunlight and wind to go through, but it protects the plants from frost and heavy rains ,and gives them a jump start.  We'll have three of these 50 foot row covers one for broccoli, one for cauliflower, and one for cabbage and kohlrabi.

• Mulched the asparagus

We haven't had much luck with asparagus here, so don't hold your breath.  It's a perennial plant that needs 3 years of growing before it can be fully harvested (prior to that you can pick small amounts).  We planted this bed last year and it's starting to come up, but was froze with this weekends frost.  The frost won't kill the plants, but sets them back.  We have a bed that was planted 5 years ago, but has only done well one year.  The other perrenials planted in the same spot also haven't thrived so we're hoping this new bed of asparagus will do well since it seems to be in good soil.

• Planted part of the kid's garden

We gave the kids a small garden to themselves that they can work in this summer.  Here's a few pictures with a story line, so you can get an idea (small scale) of how we start the gardens in the spring.

First we till the soil where the rows (to be planted that day) will be.

Here Johnny is marking the rows with stakes.  We do this in the fall (for the big gardens).  We use the same rows every year and only till were the rows will be planted.

Marking the rows with a hoe.  We used to use a straight line (string pulled taunt) to make sure the line was perfectly straight.  Now we just eye-ball it and call it "good enough".

Now comes the planting.  Here Johnny is planting a row of potatoes.

Jeremiah staying busy, playing with the extra potatoes.  We need to keep him busy and out of the gardens when we're working in them.  Not because he would wreck anything, but because his favorite food is dirt.  I think he has eaten more dirt in one day than all of the rest of our family combined have ever eaten.  Some reason he likes a mouthful of pasty dirt.

Lu Lu is digging a small hole for the potato

Covering the potato and patting the dirt down.  We then water the  rows.

After the plants come up, hill the potatoes and then mulch between the rows.  Throughout the summer we will water and weed as need, then we will all enjoy the harvest when the vegetables are ripe.

Here are a few more pictures of the gardens

Paddock Garden
One row cover is lettuce, spinach, and bok choy and the other is kale, radicchio, and fennel.  We also have white potatoes, garlic and radishes planted here.  We will be planting the carrots and sweet corn in this garden as well.

Strawberry bed
All of the buds froze last year, so we're hoping to get a good crop off this year.

Celery transplant covered with a milk jug

Celery/Celeriac Row
We use milk jugs with their bottoms cut off to cover transplants that don't go under the row covers.  It allows them to  harden off without direct sunlight and wind for a few weeks after planting.  It also protects them from light frost.