Today in the Garden - April 21

When the end of the day rolls around my CLO (Chief Logistics Officer - Roger) and I start to wonder if we have really accomplished anything. Not a lot of things on our to-do list seem to get crossed off. So today we decided to work really hard and figured maybe we could get a few more things scratched off that darn list.

1. Plant new rhubarb starts.

 Of course that meant we had to dig up the purple coneflowers that were right next to where the rhubarb was to go, pull up the plastic that was smothering the weeds in the rhubarb bed, and lay out some landscape fabric. And as long as the fabric was out, why not lay some down by the raspberry bushes. And that meant that first the grass had to be mowed short. I needed my tape measure to figure out how far apart to dig the holes for the rhubarb. Since it was down in the greenhouse I decided to check out the newly planted corn while I was there and also see how warm it was getting in the hoop house. Glad I checked it out -it was like a sauna in there! I had to open it up and hang the deer netting over the doors so the deer didn't go in and sample my "salad bar" of plants in there.

(Add to tomorrows list:

1.      pot-up coneflowers
2. put wood chips on landscape fabric
3. mow around rest of garden

 

Heading back to the garden I noticed that Chickadees were moving into the birdhouses in the front yard. They left tell-tale grass hanging out their front door.

Add “4. fill bird feeders"

I also noticed that Roger's truck was covered in pollen -

guess we need to add

"5. wash truck"

Back in the garden I thought about the fact that it hadn't rained much in the last 2 days and, since it was pretty warm out, the new Walla Walla onion transplants were demanding water. We haven't needed any irrigation equipment yet this year, so that means everything was still hanging up in the shop. But before we could run the hoses from the well to the garden we had to find and dig out the PVC pipe that we thread the hose through under the driveway. Winter rains had filled the ends with sand and it needed to be washed out. Then all we had to do was hook up the hose, turn it on and water.

It was getting down right hot out in the new rhubarb bed. We had measured, dug some holes and added compost. Time to sit in the shade for a few minutes and stay hydrated. Don't want to over-do it on the first "over 70 degree day this year".  Ahhh. While we were resting, a very pregnant deer ambled by us - maybe 30 feet away. She didn't seem to be bothered by us - what harm could a couple of old codgers do anyway?

 Okay, enough lazing around...back to work. The rhubarb plants were soon tucked into their new home and watered in. All we had left to do was clean up and put our tools away.

Roger figured he even had time to make one swipe of the lawn mower down the grassy strip in the middle of the driveway. An hour later he was still riding the mower back and forth in the pasture. The grass was really too long there for the lawn mower. Tomorrow he'll do it right.

6. hook up mower deck to tractor
7. mow rest of pasture

At the end of the day, all we got to cross off our 5 item to-do list was

"plant rhubarb".


We accomplished only 20% of our goals today. A pretty low score.

But, satisfaction with our life - that's another story. It's pretty high.
 It's 100%

True Love

I told Roger about my dream of starting a nursery/greenhouse business.

His reply? "How can I help you make it happen?"

And this is what he did for me.

New Hoop House.

True Story.

True Love.

McMinnville Saturday Market

It's official!

Cherry Hill Farm Natural Food will be a part of the McMinnville Saturday Market starting on May 5th.

My plant starts are growing like weeds. I'm practicing putting the canopy tent up and down. My display signs are all designed and will soon be laminated. The Cherry Hill Farm banner will be ordered tomorrow. The last of the cucumbers were planted today. Corn seeds will be planted tomorrow. A batch of seedless raspberry jam will be made next week.

I'm really excited about this new adventure!

Now, if only the weather will cooperate and give gardeners some nice warm, sunny weather.

Was the Work This Hard When I Was Younger?

The older I get, the less I get done in a day.

I remember how slowly my Mom moved. Now I am moving at that pace too. When did this happen?

I had hoped to get the soil-less mixture for the new raised bed boxes mixed and the boxes filled, the sunflowers for the Saturday Market transplanted, the hoop house and greenhouse plants organized, the lemon, pickling and slicing cucumber seeds planted, the corn seed started and labels made for all the newly repotted plants.

It was too windy up here on the top of the hill to make the mix for the raised beds today. Vermiculite and peat moss was flying all over. Hopefully tomorrow will be calmer. And the pickling cukes and corn will have to wait for tomorrow too.

I love what I'm doing, though. Having my own nursery/greenhouse business has been a dream of mine for years. My bout with breast cancer has given me a different perspective on things. One of the questions I asked myself was if I had only a year left to live, what would I regret not having done.

And now I am blessed to be living my dream.

April Sunshine

Last Monday was the first sunshiney day we'd had in a long time. There was so much on my garden to-do list that I had to choose only the few things I knew could be finished in one day. The rain returned the next day . Sigh.

A couple of days a week Roger and I watch our 2 year old and 4 year old granddaughters, so we had extra helpers in the garden that day. Savannah helped Grandpa make frames for the strawberry boxes that will hold up the crop protection cloth now and the bird netting later in the season.

Roger pieced these together with pipe leftover from the hoop house we're making. They turned out really well. With the cloth in place the strawberries will ripen over a month early. And when the weather warms up I'll replace the cloth with some bird netting. This year the strawberries will be mine! (Last year the birds got my first crop of berries. I had noticed that the berries were getting big and juicy and figured that I should get them covered up soon. I headed to my local Lowe's to get some netting and by the time I got back home most of the berries were gone.)

Strawberry season here we come!

Cherry Hill Farm - New Year's day 2012

What a gorgeous day!

58 degrees, sunny....warm enough

to leave the patio door open for some much needed fresh air.

If this is any indication of what the year will be like, it's gonna be a good one!

The garden was calling my name this morning.

No way was I going to spend it indoors organizing the file cabinets or sorting the grandkids toy closet.

I've been looking at my seed catalogs lately,

dreaming about all the beautiful flowers and veggies that will be

growing in my garden this spring.

Guess it's time to do some garden clean up and get it all ready.

Today I pulled out my fall crop of snow peas, uncovered the strawberry beds, dug the last of the carrots, cut down the old bean vines, composted the dead rhubarb leaves, pruned out last season's raspberry canes and pulled out the dead cosmos and marigold plants

(there will be a lot of volunteer plants in the garden this year, lol)

I know that there will still be a lot of grey, soggy, dreary days ahead before our

glorious Oregon spring weather gets here, but today gave me some much needed time outdoors.

 My spirit feels renewed & recharged!

update on my update

Tonight we are sleeping in a real bed. With pillows. And in a warm room. The hotel opened back up today. We are on the 7th floor. Only the first floor was flooded. No hot water, but that doesn't matter to us. Really appreciating the small things.

Our boys left for hunting yesterday. They are sleeping on cots. No hot water. And loving every minute. Guess it all depends on your perspective. LOL

This entry was going to tell you all about what we were doing in our jobs at Headquarters. Things change rather quickly around here. Roger & I are not there any longer. On Saturday night we were having a late dinner when we got a phone call asking us to move to Binghamton, NY. There was major flooding there and we were to help set up another HQ. On Sunday morning we headed out, with Roger driving a big truck loaded with cots and blankets and me following behind. Roger’s commercial drivers’ license that he had for driving a school bus has come in really handy this trip.

Binghamton is sited where 2 rivers come together: the Susquehanna and the Chenango. Both of these rivers were swollen from Irene and then Tropical Storm Lee came ashore, too. A lot of the downtown area was flooded out, including the local Red Cross chapter office. They set up an Emergency Operation Center in one of the fire stations in the area.

Over 20,000 people were evacuated and we currently are housing over 3,000 people in several shelters. That number doesn’t include the several hundred Red Cross workers in staff shelters.

The housing accommodations are different here than they were in Albany. We had a motel room there. Here we have been in several different places. Currently I am staying in the women’s’ staff shelter in the gym of a local church. It’s much nicer than the last place we had that had boasted one bathroom and no showers for the 65+ women staying there. LOL. Roger is staying in the men’s’ staff shelter in the activity room of a children’s home. They at least have 2 showers, although until yesterday, they didn’t have any hot water. We each have a cot and blanket issued to us. Lights out at 10pm, lights on at 6am. Same rules as in the shelters we set up for the evacuees. It sure helps us to have a better understanding of how they feel.

Some of the businesses are starting to open back up, although you can tell that they had been damaged. People are starting to be allowed to go back to their homes to start the clean up process. One of the things we do is hand out clean-up supplies: buckets, shovels, bleach, face masks, gloves, boxes of garbage bags. And then our mobile feeding units drive through those same neighborhoods handing out meals, snacks and drinks. There aren’t many places close to them where they can buy food. And right now their main focus is cleaning.  

Roger & I are both in logistics here. In Albany I was working in Staffing. It’s amazing how many behind the scenes people it takes to get the food and cleaning supplies out to the people and also provide housing and daily meals. Fork lift drivers, cooks, warehouse workers, data entry, nurses, doctors, mental health workers, shelter workers, truck drivers, shuttle drivers, janitors, security, EMTs, food servers, accountants, social workers, damage assessment workers, teachers, travel agents, etc.

It’s almost time for lights out, so I’d better finish. We put in some long hours when we are getting everything up and running. On a typical day we get to work about 7am and close up shop sometime between 8 and 9pm. So when the lights go out, we’re ready for sleep.

Good night.

Joanie

Just a quick update...we are working 12-13 hour days and are pretty tired at the end of the day, so this will be a short email. We have a day off on Friday and if we can get a little ways out of town, we may be able to take some pictures to send with the next update. Most people thing that Hurricane Irene is over and can't figure out while Red Cross is still here. I don't know how much press that the Northeast weather area is getting out West, but it's about the only thing here. Before the hurricane arrived here, New York & Vermont were besieged by storms. The ground was saturated and so when Hurricane Irene came in with it's high winds and heavy rain, the water had no place to go. The area that we are in around Albany , NY, is quite mountainous.(At least that's what I've heard. We've only seen the airport, our motel and the 2 miles to our work site at Red Cross Headquarters.) Many of the roads in the mountain areas are not paved. When Irene hit, trees fell and the rain turned the roads to mud and things slid down the mountain. Many people that live up on the mountains were cut off. One of the local volunteers told me about a family - father, mother and 2 small children - who walked into the closest little town. It took them 4 days, without food or water, to make the journey. There was no road left so they had to make their way over fallen trees and around mudslides. When they arrived in town, it was mostly destroyed, too. The Red Cross vehicles were at one of the few buildings that was still standing, handing out hot meals and setting up cots for the people to sleep in. They told officials that there were others still up on the mountain. Since the hurricane we have had severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, flash floods and more rain is being forecast for the next 5 days. Shelters and feeding stations that were closed are being reopened and people that had returned to their homes to start cleaning up are being told to evacuate again. Several towns have been completely destroyed. At least 5 of the beautiful old covered bridges are gone now, too. Creeks that were once something that you could take your grand kids wading in are now raging rivers that have flooded everything around them and there is no sign that the waters will recede anytime soon. There are hundreds of people here with Red Cross from all over our country. All of us working towards the same goal: to make sure that the people who have been affected by this disaster have food to eat, a safe place to sleep, clothes and basic necessities and someone to listen. It's humbling to see how much these small things mean to someone who has lost everything. You'd think we had given them the world.

Hurricane Irene - Disaster Relief

I think today is Friday. We left home yesterday - Thursday I think -about 7am. After a couple of flights and one layover, we arrived in Albany, NY about midnight. By the time we got our rental car and checked in at the motel, it was close to 2. Up at 6:30am, showered and off to the Red Cross Headquarters. Worked til 7pm tonight - a short day - stopped for dinner - them home...our motel room. Answered a couple of emails, started my DR blog and now its off to bed and sleep. This is a really short entry tonight. Really tired. Will need to be at work by 7am tomorrow.

It's all worth it.

My heart is in the South

A mother, taking shelter in her home, has her babies ripped from her arms by a tornado. The mother and one child are in the hospital in critical condition; her other 2 children are dead. An 18 yr old was sucked out of his father's car by the terrible storm on the way home from his graduation. He still has not been found.

Over 200 people are still listed as missing. Whole families are missing. Homes torn apart.  Lives torn apart. And more storms are on the way, with hurricane season officially starting on June 1st.

My heart is breaking for those who have lost everything they hold dear. I can't just sit here, watching the stories unfold, without feeling, without knowing, that I need to be back in the South, with Red Cross, helping in any way I can.

Deer Hunters

Colton wanted to go scouting for deer, just like his Daddy does.

So one fall day he took off walking across the pasture all by himself.

We wondered how far he'd go and how soon he'd turn around

and realize we were very, very far away.

Maybe there would be a little fear and tears on his small face,

and he would come running back to us.

He never turned back.

Fifteen months old and he wasn't scared at all.

He was determined to find a deer.

Reminds me a lot of his Daddy at that age.

Uncle Justin hurried to catch up with him,

and hand in hand they walked together

on this cool, crisp, perfect-for-deer hunting day.

This is one of my all-time favorite pictures.

Reforestation

As granddaughter Kiana would say:

"Baby Christmas Trees!"

Planted 3 dozen.

 Grand Fir, Douglas Fir, Noble and Ponderosa Pine

Did You Know?

Fir trees absorb carbon dioxide and other harmful "greenhouse" gases

and release fresh oxygen into the air.

One acre of "Christmas trees" provides the daily oxygen requirements for 18 people.

Young, fast-growing trees release more oxygen than mature forest trees.

"Christmas Trees" temper winds, suppress loud sounds, filter dust,

 moderate temperature, and dissipate odors.

They also protect our water supplies, and provide refuge for wildlife.

Next Christmas, make the world a healthier place.

Buy a live tree and plant it in your yard.

Strawberries 101

Sweet, juicy strawberries. That's what this is all about.

And it only takes a few easy steps to get them.

Trust me.

In my opinion, strawberries do their best work in raised beds.

And that means less work for you...later.

Trust me.

I'm going to tell you a story.

Once upon a time there was a princess

who lived at the top of a hill that overlooked a beautiful valley.

This princess loved working in her garden, especially her strawberry patch.

In order to keep the weeds away from her precious plants

and to keep them warm at night she surrounded them with straw.

She thought it was straw. She heard the lady who gave it to her say straw.

Or maybe she said hay and the princess only heard straw.

Whatever.

It really was hay.

And all those little seeds sprouted.

Don't make the same mistake.

Put your strawberries to bed in a bed.

The End.

So now, go get a raised bed box.

Add a wonderful mix that doesn't have an soil in it.

That's right, no dirt.

Just equal parts of compost, peat moss and vermiculite.

Isn't it beautiful?

Now fill the bed  about 2/3 with this mix, and we're ready to get started.

Some of the tools you'll need for this project are:

a bucket, small scissors, hand shovel,

compost and a measuring tape.

After the bed is filled,

mark spaces about a foot apart.

I use straws.

This bed is 8 feet long by 2 feet wide.

I put 16 plants in it.

Oh, I almost forgot...

make sure you are working under the supervision

of  an experienced field worker.

Here is a clump of strawberries that I dug up. Lets see what we can do with them.

You'll  notice that there are lots of leaves- some of them looking pretty ratty- 

and also some grass. 

And here are the leaves that were trimmed off.

Which leaves need to be removed? All the old ones that look like this.

And also remove any little flower buds that you see. I know that part is hard to do.

You can almost taste those juicy berries.

You need to be strong.

The plants need to put all their energy into growing healthy roots.

The sooner they have a good root system,

the sooner they will be able to produce
lots of luscious fruit for you

Here is our clump, all cleaned up and almost ready to divide.

(That grass looks so artistic.)

Dividing them will be much easier to do if we can see the roots.

This is where your bucket comes in.

Soak the plants in several inches of water until the dirt becomes mud

and it can be gently and easily removed from the roots.

Ahhh, much better. And look at those roots.

Now we can see where two separate plants will come from.
 You have some options at this point.
You can gently try to wiggle the plants apart;
or if they are hugging each other too tight,
 you will have to use a knife to cut them apart.

Here is one of our soon-to-be

 planted strawberry plants

Okay, now it's time to play in the dirt.

Dig a hole about 4 inches deep.

About.

Don't worry if it's not exact.

We'll fill it back up.

With beautiful compost.

(This compost is compliments of my chickens.)

If you aren't lucky enough to have chickens to make your compost

you can just buy some at the store.

Don't fill the hole completely up. leave about an inch or two.

Now make a hole in the middle of the compost with your finger.

Big enough for the roots of the berry plant

Spread out the roots out and then fill the hole the rest of the way to the top

with compost. Tamp the soil /compost with your hand until it's firm.

Strawberries are very particular about how they are planted.

The crown of the plant needs to be above the soil, not below it.

(The crown of the plant is where the roots stop and the leaves begin.)

To save time, you can dig several holes, then fill them all with the compost.

Now plant your little baby berry plants.

Do it quickly. You don't want any of the root hairs to dry out.

Hairy roots are good.

They are what takes up all the water and nutrients that the plants need to live and grow.

We're almost done.

All we have left to do is cover them up

Now wasn't that easy?

I cover up the plants for several reasons.

Berries will ripen earlier under this warm blanket;

It keeps the birds from eating the fruit;

And it keeps the cats from using it as a litter box.

These are large staples are what keeps

the fabric from floating away in the wind.

Oh my gosh. Another box is already done.

See how fast it goes?

And at the end of the day,

 after all the plants are in their new beds,

there is only a little dirt on my hands,

thanks to my surgical -type gloves.

See? Just a few easy steps.

Sweet, juicy strawberries

aren't very far away.

Trust me.