The Gardens are all in

So we finally got the gardens all planted on Tuesday night before the foretasted rainy Wednesday(?).  The rain came last night.  Memorial Day weekend was a big push to get most of the gardens planted.  Josh's brother, Jared, and his fiance, Stacie, came out to help.  It was nice to have their help since they had almost all the tomatoes planted on Saturday morning before me and the kids even got done with breakfast and outside.

We also have most of the gardens weeded, just the paddock one is left.  The job of weeding is pretty endless, so I should say we have the first round almost done.  The next project we'll be working on is mulching.  We lay newspaper down in between the rows and lay straw over the top.  This helps keep moisture in the soil and weeds out.

Here is our plan for the first CSA pickup.  In Bismarck, the first pickup will be on Tuesday, June 11.  In New Salem, the first pickup will be on Thursday, June 13th.  The kale is almost ready to pick now, the spinach will be ready and hopefully the lettuce.  The rhubarb, chives, and green onions are already ready.  It'll probably be a small basket, but the first produce is always the best!  I'll be sending out an e-mail with more details.

We got the first picking of rhubarb this week...25 lbs.  I looked at it today and it doesn't even look like we picked it!  It's definitely growing fast.

On a sunny day before last weekend, I went around and took some pictures of the chickens and gardens.  I'm a little late getting them up on the blog for you.  Everything has grown since then, but it gives you an idea of how things are coming along.

Chickens
These chickens are 6 weeks old here.  We will be butchering on June 7th & 8th.  If you ordered for the June batch you can pick up at the farm on the 7th or in Bismarck on the 8th.  I will be contacting you with more details.

Dandelions
This is the time of year when most people waste money spraying dandelions in their yards.  We don't like the idea of using chemicals or wasting money, since dandelion seed just floats into the yard from the neighbors (like us) who don't spray.  So we make use of them.  We started 2 gallons of dandelion wine.  It should be ready to bottle in a couple months and ready to drink around Christmas time.  It's pretty easy, so if you're interested let me know and I'll share my recipe.

 Gardens

Potatoes

Radishes

Garlic

Rhubarb

Beets

Onions

Broccoli

Peas

Asparagus

 Here's that asparagus patch that we mulched.  It's growing well.  Hopefully we'll be able to pick some of it next year.

Strawberry bed

 The strawberries are starting to bloom.  We're hoping to have a good crop this year!

Strawberry plants

 Irrigation

Water filter pressure regulator for the drip line irrigation.  You can see the roll of drip tape that we pull off and line the rows.  It's really cool!...Way better than sprinklers!

headline of irrigation with the red nossel and drip tape on each row.  It allows us to turn on the water for each individual row.