Planting again

I guess I just can't help myself.  Along with picking up a couple of seed packets, yesterday I brought home rootstock for a peach tree (Florida King variety, a self-fertilizing and "old time" strain, according to Lynn), two American hazelnut shrubs, and five berry canes: two more raspberry varieties, a boysenberry, a dewberry, and a blackberry.  I also grabbed a 3 pound bag of Russet seed potatoes.

The hazelnuts and the peach tree are in pots next to the front porch, until I figure where they'll be safest and happiest - hazelnuts are apparently attractive to squirrels, turkeys, and deer.  If we need to, hubby can put the doors back on the old chicken coop and we can put them in there to protect from marauding wildlife.

Battening down

Alright, it's cold again.  Y'all up there need to quit letting those cold front wander down this far south, because we are really not equipped to handle it.  Hibiscus and lemon grass are back in the greenhouse, after being out yesterday for some warm rain.  Beds are covered again, although even with being covered the basil died anyway.  I still have a nice bell pepper on each of the two plants, so that bed gets the old comforter.  We gathered up all the eggs we could find outside, since it is forecast to get down to 28-30F and possible hard freeze (more than 4 hours below freezing).  Just not enough old blankets to cover the citrus trees, so here's hoping they do alright.  The Persian lime is dead down to its root stock, Lynn told me, so at some point will dig up the root stock unless I find someone who can graft.

I have sprouts now!  Both varieties of tomato - with a much better sprout rate in the Mortgage Lifter than the Old German.  Some of the Top Seven turnips are up, and last time I peeked into the pepper tray I saw jalapeno and pasilla sprouts.  That tray has a good bit of condensation in it.  Yesterday I planted two more trays: broccoli and spinach in one, and the other dedicated to Swiss chard.

chard tray, six varieties

broccoli and spinach tray

Now, about those hibiscus: one bloomed yesterday, and the other budded enough we could see the color, so I have one red and one yellow red-leafed hibiscus.

hibiscus and lemongrass out for some rain

red hibiscus flower

yellow hibiscus bud

Pleasant surprises

Today has been just full of pleasant surprises here.  For this morning's round of caponizing, I have one slip and three more pullets.  This time, since I suspected one or two of being a pullet, I checked for saddle feathers versus cushion feathers on the back behind the wings but in front of the tail.  I didn't expect three, but a, very pleased about the most colorful one.  She's a keeper for certain - size, width, and color on top of that.

Another pleasant surprise started yesterday when Lynn got hold of a fellow who expressed interest in buying eggs.  He asked for "15 to 20 dozen" last evening, and I sorted and wiped down 15 dozen just from our back table - his big requirement is that they not be refrigerated, and that is no big deal this time of year.  Lynn had gathered up at least twelve dozen when I took my box of eggs up to her, and must have scared up another five dozen because he wrote her a check for 32 dozen eggs at $3/dozen.  He would like to get 20 dozen per week, he says.

Just now, while out on a cigarette break (neither of us smoke in the house), I decided to clear a little excess vegetation around the Tree of Destiny, and then I figured since I was right there, might as well see if the two grape vines are still alive.  Not only are they both still alive, but they are doing much better than I thought.  Instead of growing upwards this past year, they went stealth mode and did the grapevine equivalent of a low crawl to each side.  I nicked the one I thought dead with the weed whip, and that is green wood fiber under its bark.  This just happens to be the time of year to prune such things back ...

I am collecting eggs from Spikey and the broilers (plus Bertha now) and another batch from Azar and the Pretties for hatching.  The farmer's almanacs I am using also give set dates for egg incubation, and the 28th looks perfect for me.

The two cockerels from yesterday's attempt at caponizing are sold, to be delivered on February 6th, which is New Year's Eve by the Chinese calendar.  Leo had asked about getting a Wyandotte for Chinese New Year back in December, and I had planned to have this crew caponized earlier than this.  This works out just fine - two for Leo and his family, and one for hubby and I.

Planting notes for equinox week

OK, a big update on what has gone into the ground this past week.

• Last Sunday and Monday we planted potatoes, German Butterfinger and Yukon Gold, one in each box on the north side of the shed so they will be well shaded.  We also reviewed the planting notes on the bag for the Yukon Gold potatoes.
• Beets (Jupiter variety) undersowed in the newest bean bed after consulting the companion planting color-coded simple chart.
• Carrots also undersowed in the other two bean beds.  Another packet of Ferry-Morse rainbow assortment in the old pea patch (which also has now four volunteer sugar pea plants up) and Danvers 126 in the original garden box that has the purple bell pepper start and a couple silverdusts on one end along with the assorted garden beans.
• Beets (Ruby Queen variety) put into the other half of the cabbage/chard box.  The cabbage looks like it is starting to head, and the swiss chard looks impressive, so it's time to test just how good a substitute it really is for spinach (which is struggling in the old tomato box, although volunteer dill plants look decent but not spectacular)
• The sweet corn in the old compost heap is rocking it ... pole beans will go in sometime this week, along with zucchini and summer squash, with a perimeter of pumpkins as well as the volunteer acorn squashes.
• Speaking of compost, we have run out of our homemade compost and I bought a Bobcat bucket load from Lynn up the highway ... and I will likely need another bucket load or two before this season's planting is done.
• New fruit trees for the orchard: a bit of a surprise!  My neighbor came over with two orange tree saplings in one hand and his shovel in the other, and planted them for me on Wednesday "Nosotros somos amigos!")  He also showed me how big of a "crater" to put around citrus trees, so we'll be digging up more rope grass in the near future on the rest of our struggling citrus trees.
• Garden fresh salads should begin this week, as the green leafy lettuce from the seeds I collected last year are looking great out there.  I may not know exactly what variety or strain these lettuce plants are, but I do know they are thriving.  I also have a volunteer green romaine lettuce coming up from under the layer of compost, so I will save seeds from that one as well.  Finally, the blush-tinted lettuce (Ashley variety) and the collards I planted in that box are also rocking it, alongside even more volunteer acorn squash.
• Tomato starts are up and need transplanting.  All three varieties planted have sprouted: San Marzanzo, Brandywine, and the Mortgage Lifter seeds from 2013, so I will be taking an assorted dozen next door as a "Muchas gracias por los arboles naranjes." ("Many thanks for the orange trees.")  The other 70-some-odd will go into the walk-in greenhouse we bought at Big Lots and hubby put together over a week ago.  Dad called me Friday and one of his questions was if that was up and running yet.
• Raking up the fallen dead leaves is now a high priority here, after seeing tangible and very positive results!  Must make more compost, for possibly the autumn, and definitely for next spring.

So that is a summary of the past week's playing in the dirt, with some notes for this week's round of playing in the dirt in between chickening and building for chickens.  LOL I wore my cute little cheapie Tractor Supply T-shirt to the county fair yesterday, and the folks at the UF Ag extension booth noticed and commented on it: "Living Life One Acre at a Time."  I mentioned it was so appropriate because while we only have about two and a half acres, we're doing most of this by hand, so it really is "One acre at a time."  Ya know, we may have the front acre almost covered by now.

Just to keep this from being a solid "wall of text" here is one pic of my silver dusts, shortly after I transplanted them.  I have two more pics, but the pic card is not playing well with GIMP right now.

three silver dusts with a couple aloe veras

Orange and grapefruit marmalade

Otherwise known as "kitchen work - review."  I did not get everything accomplished on Tuesday that I had hoped, but I did get a good enough start on all but the bread pudding to finish up yesterday ... and still have time to crash out for a nap in the afternoon.  Both marmalades are finished and water-bathed.  The orange marmalade was my first time doing up a marmalade of any kind, and it's a bit thin because I took it off the heat just a couple minutes too soon.  The grapefruit marmalade is the perfect gel consistency, and it has that distinctive grapefruit tang/bitterness to it that may just be the perfect glaze for grilled meats.  Oh, I am now officially out of half-pint jars again.

grapefruit marmalade ready to be water bathed

orange marmalade in the water bath

No pics of the ketchup or barbecue sauce, as I have done a post on those previously.  I also did up the flour tortillas.

cooking the flour tortillas

kneaded flour tortilla dough resting before rolling out

My neighbor Maria gave us the grapefruits and oranges.  I'm pretty sure she said her sister has the trees, and had a good crop again this year.  This is really getting me excited for when our citrus trees finally start producing!  I have orange, lemon, lime, tangerine, and sweet kumquat trees out there still growing.

Now, time for a different sort of chore today: slaughtering the three cockerels.

Transplanted raspberries, more seeds started

I started off this morning okay ... hubby volunteered to dig the holes for the two new raspberry canes we bought yesterday, so all I had to do was grab up a small bucket of compost and my gloves.  Mysore raspberries have thorns ... not that the dog is in any way discouraged from fertilizing the raspberries in the least.  No problem.  Just lean over, work the plastic container off them, massage the roots so it knows it can once again expand in its own shape, hold it ground level while putting some compost around, then firm up the loose soil.

two new mysore raspberry canes

No problem, and it gave me something to do while waiting for the clothes washer to finish up the final rinse and final spin.  Then I went to hang up the laundry ... and my back let me know I either moved wrong or did too much already.  Insert vulgar profanity learned in factories and the army here.

I took the half-(*donkey*)ed pain pills VA gives me nowadays and laid down for a few hours.  I had also sorted out the seed packets over coffee earlier, and had a handful to start in with the tomatoes and peppers in the little greenhouses.  (Note to self: need pic of little greenhouses.)  So I knitted and rested up then went back out to rearrange cockerels for tomorrow and plant some seeds: Carmen sweet peppers I had saved seeds from in fall 2013, pasilla bajo peppers, garlic chives, and catnip.  Almost all were in packets marked 2013 or 2014, except the pasilla peppers.  I know I bought some previously ... I just can't seem to find them right now.

Instead of using potting soil, I used our compost.  They really do look almost identical - the potting soil has little white and green bead-looking thingies in it, but that is the only difference.

I think I'll add three more raspberry canes to the patch, then see if that is enough or not.

Pictures of dirt

Now this is a thing of true beauty: our two years in the making compost heap.  Hubby decided to start breaking in to it today, and called my attention to the lovely shade of deep rich brown, almost black, and the wonderful smell of fertile soil instead of the various stages of decomposition.

digging in to the compost heap

spreading rich compost on the garden boxes

You can really see the contrast in the half-filled garden box!  That box was filled from the compost heap last year, but what we have today is superior.

Today's outside adventures started when I decided I would prune back the raspberry cane, the grapevines, and the still-small fruit trees.  Then, hubby offered to help me plant seeds for the little greenhouses: tomatoes and peppers. That sent me on a hunt for the jalapeno seeds from last year and from the store while hubby filled the little Jiffy-pot cells with potting soil (before we broke into the compost heap, or we might have used that instead).

What we've accomplished so far today:

• pruned the orchard, berry patch, and vineyard (hey, it sounds good ... I'll get more planted soon!)
• planted Anaheim and jalapeno peppers, along with two unknown pepper varieties.  I forgot to write down what they were, just know they are some kind of pepper
• planted Brandywine and San Marzanzo (sp?) tomatoes, along with some Mortgage Lifter seeds I had saved in 2013
• started topping off the garden boxes with the compost

And that's only outside stuff.

Lemon blossom

We might not always feel like it, but we are still alive.  I caught the sinus crud from hubby, and with us both hacking up phlegm very little has been accomplished this past week.

One accomplishment I noticed last evening as we watered the fruit trees and garden boxes is: the little Eureka lemon tree from Mall-Wart has begun to bloom.

Eureka lemon bush blooming

It's much more a bush than a tree right now, as it was trained and shaped to be a potted houseplant, I think.  When it goes dormant, I will try to prune it into more of an outdoorsy orchard look.

First lemon blossom on the property here, though!

The new non-citrus fruit trees

Put in approximately two weeks ago, here are the "dead sticks" hubby helped me plant!  Pictures taken Saturday, 23 February 2013.

Pineapple-Pear sapling (a sweet firm pear)

Anna apple sapling

Tropical Beauty peach sapling

These are the varieties the lady at the local nursery recommended when I asked about versatile varieties that would work for eating fresh, baking, and canning/making jams.

Now, for the pic that has become my new wallpaper:

Apple blossoms budding

This morning, the top one is fully open with a second one under it halfway open as well.