Sovereignty Farms

A Stretch of Un-Luck

I put out some seeds and plants, as I mentioned in previous posts.  All was good because of the rain we had.  THEN....rabbits ate my chives and bunching onions...and pulled out my broccoli plants....

then...

I decided to try and reuse to irrigation from prior to the tornado.  I stretched it out, etc, etc...only to learn that the water faucet it uses is not working...

Dan dug up the water for the barn and noticed the pipe is busted, so we have to get a plumber to fix it.  Goodness know how much that will cost.  In the meantime, I have no way to water those plants and I am leaving for a week....

I feel like everything in there is not going to make it.  It makes me sad.  This is not the most encouraging way to pick back up on the gardening.

Planting More Veggies

It has been raining over the past several days, so I am a little behind in planting.  Cooper let me work in the yard for about 20 minutes today.  And, I used a new hoe which helped speed things along.  Here is the progress:

• Sowed dill seeds and red onion seeds outside (red onion seeds may not work but I am giving it a try) as well as Super Snappy peas
• Sowed lettuce and okra seeds indoors
• It is time to transplant broccoli, onion and parsley but I did not sow them in time.  So, I planted plants from Home Depot - 2 broccoli, sweet onion slips and red onion slips.  I have parsley growing under the lights so I will transplant it later.

I was not able to plant another set of radishes or greens (ran out of time).  Also, it is time to plant potatoes, but I am not ready yet.  I am still growing the eyes on some potatoes indoors. And, I all of that is work t=for LAST week.  I still need to do this weeks work. Whew. But the weather is supposed to cooperate - yeah.

Thank Goodness for the Extra Daylight

This weeks seeds in the grow light area include more lettuce and basil, and okra.  Did those today.  There are seeds to be sewn outside also - Dill and Peas. I am also going to sew broccoli and onions outside - they should be transplanted at this time but I did not sow them early enough.  We'll see if that works.  Tomorrow I need to go get a hoe before I can sow anything else.  I am very worried about the seeds without the water system.  I am not sure when I will be able to get that in place.  It will take a weekend when Dan can watch Cooper for me.  I need several uninterrupted hours. I guess the first step is going to check out the T-tape - don't know if it made it through the storm.

I also cleaned up some more areas in the flower beds this evening.  It helps that it is still light when Cooper goes to bed. I cleaned up the beds, but left the debris.  Tomorrow during a nap I need to clean up my clean up mess. And then, pine straw.

Let the gardening begin!

I have started some seeds upstairs under the lights based on the plans of my little gardening notebook from my last post.  They include Oregano, Basil (multiple kinds), Chives (regular and garlic), Parsley (flat and curly), Tomatoes (5 types including Rutgers and Roma), Peppers (hot and sweet) and lettuce (multiple kinds).  Today Cooper and I planted 2 kinds of mustard greens and 2 kinds of radishes.  They were sewed directly outside.  It is my first time for growing both of those.  I am excited about the radishes.  I need to get Dan to teach me how to use the rabbit gun.  I am determined to win this year!!

I desperately need to get some mulch down. In the veggie garden and in the flower beds.  I am thinking we will move to pinestraw - it is cheaper.  I am still trying to figure out how to consolidate the beds.  I need to do it quickly.  The sun is already killing the ajuga.

We did not get the snow that everyone else did this week.  It was so disappointing. We got lots of rain but pretty much nothing else - however, here is a picture of my Dad's house not too far away: