In which bumps of bare dirt will eventually become our gardens

This time of year is a busy time for the gardens (and the gardeners),

but it doesn't look like much.  It pretty much looks like "bumps of dirt surrounded by other bumps of dirt."  

So, here's a tour of the Farm gardens, with labels so you can (kinda) tell what is (eventually) going to be growing there.

Classic Garden 1.0 - the first garden we built here at Haiku Farm, way back in 2009.   Last year this garden mostly grew squashes and corn.

This year:  

Peas and spinach are up, potatoes are beginning to sprout.  

Beans will go in mid-May, as will sunflowers.  There are calendulas scattered throughout this garden, and I let them grow wherever they aren't directly in the way of something else--they self-sow, and require very little attention...and besides, calendulas are pretty.

Also appearing in the Classic Garden this year: 

Carrot germination is slow and undependable, so I'm trying a new
trick this year to see if that helps.

I read that if you get the soil wet, then press it down with boards, then press in carrot seeds and put the boards back on top, the seeds are less likely to wash away in the inevitable rain.  

The trick is to remember to check under the boards every few days and pull them away when the carrots sprout.  Not sure I will remember, I guess we will find out!

I planted this garlic at least 2 years ago, and it did nothing. 
 I gave it up as a lost crop and moved on...but this spring,
 it sprouted up as if that had been the plan all along.  

It's good that we like garlic.

A new feature in this garden: a little greenhouse to try to grow tomatoes.  

The Tomato Curse (TM) is a blight upon my life, and I'm determined to break it this year and actually grow some decent tomatoes by controlling their environment carefully.  More on that coming soon.

Garden 2.0  - the Berry Garden

This garden gets a little less sunlight than the others, so we've gradually
 moved in perennial plants that aren't quite so fussy.

The raspberry and blueberry plants in the Berry Garden have now been in place for 2 years, and have got excellent roots established.  We're hoping for a big berry harvest this year--cross fingers!



Haenaheim

currently still full of chickens

This will be the 2nd year of growing vegetables in Haenaheim (formerly Goatenheim).  Last year was all about building decent soil, so I dumped in composted manure, grew beans in it all summer 2020, and returned to housing chickens (and their putt-putt golf course) and dumping in more composted manure all winter.

I have high hopes for a good squash crop--Godiva pumpkins, (aka "naked seed pumpkins" ), butternut squashes, and a few spaghetti squashes in Haenaheim 2021.

Monica's Garden

My garden tends to be organized into blocks, but Monica plants more in swooshes and swirls.  

Beautiful, tasty, and ready to harvest in March and April when not much else is growing

We really like garlic!

Last year we made rhubarb marmalade with our fresh rhubarb combined with 
cara-cara and blood oranges.  It was such a hit, we plan to make a lot more this year!

You can see in the photo that we've been snipping chives already for the kitchen

Around the yard:

The plum tree we planted for Pickles Marie in 2012 (!) has grown as tall as the barn,
and gave us lots of fruit last year.

I found a new variety of okra that supposedly matures quickly,
even in our maritime climate.  So, we'll give that a try this year.

I've already been nibbling early asparagus stalks as they emerge

Yes, even more garlic.  

These blueberry bushes came with the house,
and feed us breakfast for about a month each summer.

Near the blueberry bushes (above) we have a line of grapevines left behind by prior owners of the property.  These grapes are very hardy, and thrive without much help from us...however, nobody here actually eats many grapes.  We've decided to leave the grape bushes in place for one more year, and replace them with raspberry bushes next fall.  

We recently planted four new bare-root trees, and they are beginning to leaf out already!

Looking forward to more pears in 2022!

Waiting in the wings...

We have a lot of young plants sprouting under the grow lights in my office this spring.  

cherry tomatoes

Artichokes are a new experiment for 2021.  Stay tuned on their progress!

And then there are the Tiny Big Trees:

trees we planted from seed in February!  The Sharpie pen is shown for scale

 

and even smaller (so far):

baby Sequoia trees

Now, we cross our fingers and wait.