Getting Ready for Spring

Spring is on its way and we are SO ready. We can't wait for warmer weather and all that comes with it. Things on the farm are really picking up, we have had a very busy week! Besides getting the tilling done, there are several other things that we've started as well.
The time has come to start hardening off the seedlings. "Hardening off" means preparing them for conditions outside. Since they have spent their short lives indoors, they are tender and can be easily scalded by sun or damaged by cold. We start to harden them off by bringing them outside during the day and bringing them in at night. After about a week they start spending the night outside too.
Between daily watering and bringing 60 trays outside and then back inside - the seedlings have become quite time consuming. Here they are outside, look how big they have gotten! This week we also got our high tunnel ready for spring. We took everything out, dug the beds out by hand and ready for planting. Here it is all ready to go! The soil was really nice from all the compost we added last year. Tons of earthworms. We also got all our tables in position for the seedlings to come out in the next week or so. Hopefully we can get the tomatoes and cucumbers in soon too!

They're Getting Bigger...

Part of our daily routine during this part of the year, is to take care of our seedlings. Most of them need to be watered every day, and as they get bigger we will need to thin some of them out. In our first entry about planting seeds we talked about planting several seeds in each plug to ensure we get good germination. Sometimes we get GREAT germination, and we have to pinch off some of the plants so that the ones we keep will grow bigger and stronger.
As they get bigger, we gently run our hands along them to help strengthen the stems. This simulates the breeze they would be resisting if they were outdoors, the resistance is what triggers them to thicken their stems. Some people set up oscillating fans for this which works really well too.
Our seedlings have grown quite a bit since our last entry. And our grow room is getting super full.

Leeks

Kohlrabi

Red Russian Kale

Siberian Dwarf Kale


Cabbage

It won't be too much longer till we get these little guys in the ground!

No Rain = Watering

It has been a while since a good rain - a long while. Our gardens have been so thirsty and are showing the signs of drought: wilting, stalled growth, crispy edges, etc. The big challenge this month has been how, exactly, to water. Being new farmers, we don't yet have all the supplies of a larger and more established operation. We have some row covers and hoops, we make our own trellises, and we have our beloved high tunnel. What we don't have is a good irrigation system and with the small scale of our farm, it hasn't seemed justifiable to buy one just yet.
On the main property, through a series of creative hose connections, we are able to hand water just about everything. When we are short on time, we set up sprinklers (at night to minimize evaporation and wasted water). The rented lot across the street, however, has no water source and is too far to bring hoses from our place. We have beans, potatoes, and sweet potatoes that are pretty big and cilantro, chard, turnip, onion, squash, pumpkin, and melon seedlings that all desperately need water.
Our solution? Rain barrels.
About a week ago we took on the DIY project of making our own. We had a couple of large plastic barrels on the property and went up to the hardware store to grab $20 worth of plumbing supplies to kick off the project. We drilled holes in the bottom of the barrels and put together a couple of PVC couplings and a spigot. We even made our own gaskets out of a cheap sheet of rubber!
Here is what the spigot looks like attached to the hose:

We filled up the new rain barrels with water and trucked them over to the other property. The gravity feed works best when you can prop the barrels up higher than where you need to water. Luckily the property is sloped and there is just enough room on left-hand side to fit the truck. We do have one set of drip lines (hoses with holes every 6 - 8 inches to leak water directly onto the plants) and we set those up on the turnips while we hand watered the rest.


We were really surprised at the water pressure! We were expecting a trickle, but got a pretty good spray, even when the barrels were close to empty.
This has turned out to be a great solution for many reasons, but the best being that it was so cheap and so easy! It took about 10 minutes to put together once we had all the supplies. Watering takes a really long time, especially by hand, so we are still doing our rain dance but we sure are glad to have a solution to our watering problem.

Seedlings

It's been 3 days and a few seeds have already come up! Broccoli, cabbage, and a flat of mixed greens are all sprouting.