Maiden Farms

It may seem strange to some that I've actually imagined my gardening/farming experiment turning into more than a hobby, maybe even a way to make a living some day.  I'm not suggesting that I think it's likely to happen or even that it's a good idea, only that I have thought about it here or there.  Of course when I think about producing food beyond my own consumption needs and entertain the idea of participating in farmers markers, etc. a whole new set of issues and concerns arise.

• Obtaining a business license
• Accounting and managing costs, especially for tax purposes
• Marketing and branding
• Certifications for market participation
• And many other smaller things
• Notifying customers of harvest time (twitter, email subscriptions, etc.)

I'm already researching accounting solutions to help me manage my farm-related finances and several online tools  will fit the bill just fine.  Months ago I came up with the name "Maiden Farms" for my business name - inspired by my all time favorite band Iron Maiden I felt that a name derived from something completely non-agricultural was appropriate considering my own history and path leading up to this point.  And I like the font.

So this is it, my announcement of my company name and preview of my logo.  It could be that in 12 months this is nothing more than another one of my "Oh god, remember when you were all into farming and thought you were going to sell produce!  Hahaha, that was so Steve... you're such a weirdo" stories....

Or!...

It could just be that I'm still doing it and loving it.  Either way, I felt it was time to give my fantasy and experiment an identity

Late Hard Frost

It was really cold last night, well below 30° I'd say.  I had planned on putting down some covers to protect things from the frost, however one thing led to another and I just didn't get to it.  I woke this morning to most of my buckwheat cover crop dead and I suspect my new spinach seedlings took it hard as well.  My fault, I should have taken care of business instead of partying.

Pouring Rain

I sowed a ton of spinach tonight, (8) 6 packs I think.  They are sitting out in the rain right now getting the natural treatment. Also sowed 4 more 6 packs of bell peppers.

Looking forward to a Sunny day on Sunday to get the place cleaned up.

Only One Life Today

No time for farm life Today, too much regular work to do

New Office Preparation

Horrible mess

My Mom told me about a story she read in Sunset magazine about a woman that had created an office in an outdoor shed-like building.  I had already been thinking of ways that I could work outside so the timing was perfect.  I took the first step Today and cleaned out my potting shed and purchased some new heavy duty racking.  Next is to remodel the West facing wall and install some larger double hung windows and finally I think I may install a dutch door.  I haven't yet figured out how I will deal with all the insects, it would be cool to buy some Tokay geckos and just let them cruise around but I think they'll end up pooping on my stuff.  They're also kind of mean.  OK nevermind on the idea.

First thing is to get everything out

The left wall is the wall West wall that looks out to my
yard, this is the wall that I want to install the new
windows into, maybe even a sliding glass door

Big Girl

I hope she's hungry afterwards cause there's a TON of aphids-n-things that need eatin'...

Finished Off the Pallet Scraps

The white wood is from my old laundry room cabinets, the

closet pole is from the closet that used to be in the office

I'm sitting in right now.  Everything else is from pallets.

16p nails used for linchpins

I decided a couple days ago that I'm gonna take another shot at starting plants indoors.  Like any good student I've learned along the way and will tap into my past experiences to hopefully find more success this time around.  The main thing I learned is that I should not mix many different types of plants in a single large cell flat, but rather use individual or (and this is my plan) use 6-pack flats.  Having many varied plants in a single flat makes it difficult to correctly water and fertilize as each species may have slightly different needs.  I also learned that insufficient light will result in VERY leggy plants that end up collapsing on themselves and suffering stem damage.

To address these issues I'm ditching the 52 cell flats and going with a bunch of used 6-cell packs.  For the light I rigged up a new "growing base" from my pallet scraps left over from the potting bench.  This new base has a few advantages:

• It spans across my sink so that I can get the plants in the center of the light
• The light is much more adjustable, I can adjust it all the way to the deck
• It relieves the stress of having the fixture hanging off my wall sconce
• It looks much better, has that reclaimed material look that I like
• It's portable, I can move out to the shed as it warms up in the coming months

Heat pads and lights ready.  Tomorrow I hope to get the
seed sown

I've been programming all day and hit a design block for almost two hours.  I just keep drawing the same UML class diagrams and sequence diagrams over and over and couldn't clear the blockage.  This "growing base" project was a nice 2 hour distraction and change of pace.

Ordered More Seeds

Placed another order with Johnny's

• two types of watermelon
• cantaloupe
• two types of pumpkin (one for pies and another for carving)
• red veined sorrel mix

Worm Feast

Big ol' bag of scraps from Edible Arrangements in the ground.  Supposed to be a good amount of rain coming in late this afternoon.  I covered some recently sown beds with plastic to prevent flooding and displacement.

I hope worms actually come for that fruit and I haven't just created a rotten food swamp in my yard...

Cold Dirt

I've got some early corn and I want to get it in the ground ASAP.  Corn likes the soil to be around 85° and currently my soil is stuck around 62°.  Black plastic sheeting should increase the temp at least 10° (I hope!)  I sued my new "corn bed" to test this out.

So far it's been disappointing, actually not seeing any temperature increase at all.  I find this perplexing to be honest, I don't understand how this can work for farmers all around the world but not for me.  Maybe my thermometer is broken!  ;0)

I chipped away the perimeter of the bed to pull soil away, then lay the plastic down and drag the soil back up to the edge to hold the plastic down.  That's a long sentence.

How Something So Beautiful...

Can become so ugly

On a lighter note:

• Covered my "Corn Bed" with black plastic to get the soil temp up so I can sow some seeds
• Sowed 2 rows of Escarole
• Sowed 2 rows of Arugula
• Sowed 2 rows of Red Mustards
• Sowed 2 rows of Green Mustards
• Topped my Buckwheat cover crop seeds - I had tried to rake them in but they seem to have just floated up to the surface, hopefully now they will germinate

BTW, that top poppy photo is my favorite photo of 2011.  I'm really into using a shallow depth of field right now!

1/4" Screen

I needed to screen my soil to a finer texture for sowing.  Stopped by OSH and picked up some mesh (and lots of other stuff).  Went home, grabbed scraps of wood and banged together a quick screen.  Initial test results are exactly what I wanted.  Win!

So here's the story with those snips there....  About 8 months ago I bought a Harley Sportster from a woman (It's my first, gimme a break) and it had tassels all over it.  Of course when I bought it I knew I would give it a haircut immediately and I did, I also removed the clutch and brake level tassel "slip ons" and, after several adult beverages, thought it would be funny to install them onto an old pair of WISS shears.  Yeah, funny...  until Today I needed to use them and was caught by my neighbor walking by: "What in the world is that??"  "It's uhm, it's a joke, they were on my motorcycle and I...  never mind, it's stupid, forget it"  It was like getting caught with porn. 

Ha ha...

Better and Better

Alright Carrots - Finally, Jesus!...

They are coming in pretty good now, I can see all 6 rows (or is there 8?) becoming more clear as more seedlings push through the crust of soil.  I checked my notes ( I keep a separate, paper based log) and it turns out I also planted some swiss chard at the end. So I have:

• 6 Rows of carrots, 2 each for 3 types
• 4 rows of spinach, 2 each for 2 types
• 2 rows of beets, 1 each for 2 types
• 3 rows of swiss chard, all the same type

Golden beets looking good, first true leaves just a few
days away

Looking at that I can't help but wonder why I planted only two rows of spinach considering it's my favorite.  Also strange is that it's way too early for chard to be going into the ground - once again I think I would be fired as a farmer.

More Beds

I need to get some seeds in the ground and I need them in the sun!  Problem is, most of my beds are spoken for and the ones that are free are not receiving enough sun yet.  The solution was to dig up more grass and add more beds.  I had some hire help on this one because it's a ton of work and I wanted it done in one day.

Alberto and I worked as a team on the screen to break up the sod and remove the mesh backing.  The sod was pretty dry which makes it considerably less work as the dirt doesn't cling together as much.

The North side (where the rake is) will be a corn bed this spring/summer.  The long East-West bed will be beans and tomato.

Even with the additional help it took 5 hours to get the beds completed.

Like the other beds, it's a mix of existing soil, the soil from
the sod, Bumper Crop amendment and coffee grounds.

Good for nothing...

The largest of the new beds with coffee ground top
dressing.

Thanks Frank!

My neighbor Frank hooked me up with two trash cans full of green yard clippings.  It worked out well as I actually needed a nitrogen boost in my compost.  Frank (and later his wife Joanne) came over for the first time to check out the farm.  I processed the new greens from Frank and had the bins returned in an hour or so.  Another good example of multiple sources for what you need.

Irrigation Just About Complete

"But what are you going to do when you leave for a trip or take off somewhere?" - That's what people sometimes say when they hear about my lofty farming ideas.  Their concern that I will leave for a random desert getaway for 5 days or fly up to Napa to pig out and get drunk on wine and my garden will suffer, my plants will die.  For those REALLY close to me I'm sure they are selfishly thinking "God, I really don't want to hear him complain and throw a fit when he comes back and everything is dead!"

That's funny pipe (love that stuff!) with a
3/4" NPT to inline 25PSI pressure regulator
to a 3/4" NPT to 1/2 irrigation line.

Fair enough.  So I'm putting in drip irrigation, a personally liberating addition and plant saving solution to my tendency to take trips for more than a day or night.  Since my garden is located on what was previously a beautiful lawn I have stubbed out sprinklers all over the place.  I flagged them when I started this process to make them easy to find (smart!).  Now I've tapped into them and plumbed up drip irrigation.  I'm using 1/2" trunk lines with 1/4" line with embedded 1/2 GPH emitters 6" on center.  Toro makes the 1/4" drip and it's wonderful stuff, a bit pricey at $18 per 100' roll but it works well and appears to be made well.

Pros

• Plants aren't dependent on my to water them - I can leave (which I will) and they won't die
• More efficient use of water

Cons

• Same amount of water delivered to the entire bed.  This can be a problem with plants that have different water needs
• Additional expenditure
• Detracts from the naturally feel of the yard - black hosing (much with a blue stripe on it) sticks out pretty bad
• Get in the way when casually cultivating soil

Similar to the other one except here I used a broken
pipe as my opportunity to tap into the sprinkler system.
The wide black pipe is flexible PVC (awesome!
Schedule 40, uses same fittings, glue, etc.)

My unofficial plan is to only rely on the irrigation when I'm away or otherwise mentally distracted (work, woman, whatever) - otherwise I will continue my daily watering therapy.

Please ignore the excessive glue on the photo to the left, there IS a reason for it but it's a long story ;0)

Community, Friend and Family Sources

The other day I mentioned that I'm getting fruit trimmings from Edible Arrangements.  My neighbor Lisa has been donating rabbit poop, coffee grinds, old flowers, etc. for weeks now.  My Neighbor Pam contributes newspaper (for my walkways) and used tea bags.  I've grabbed fallen leaves from my parent's yard by the truck load and finally, my oldest source of composting material is Chapman Coffee!  I've been picking up bags of used grounds for months, pretty much every time I go in there I grab a bag or two.  As you know, coffee grinds are great in the yard.  You can use them in the compost, throw them on the lawn, cultivate into soil to attract and feed worms and give to any acid loving (azalea, strawberry, blueberry, etc.) plants.

Not only do all these things have value to me and help me accomplish what I'm after it also provides an opportunity for other people to contribute to something that they otherwise may not be involved in.  On top of that it's just that much less crud going to the dump.

I will continue to approach people and business about contributing their waste, some I've already got on the radar:

• Juice Stop for fruit stuffs
• Orange Flowers for flower cuttings (they are on my shit list though because I just got back (look at the date of this post) after being told there was a $50 min. order for delivery AND a delivery charge!  WTF?)
• Cabinet shop(s) for sawdust
• pet shop for rabbit and other rodent poop

Plenty O' Trellis'

Despite it's appearance, this is actually fresh fruit
trimmings, the dark specs are coffee grinds that were
mixed in.

Picked up my first batch of produce waste from John at Edible Arrangements.  When I got home I decided to use it in the compost tumbler to try and finish off a batch of compost that has been a real challenge.  I chopped it up with the shovel and tossed it in there.  Fingers crossed.  If it goes like I hope it does the temp should be up in the 130-150 range in a couple days.

I'm not sure if I mentioned this earlier, but I've been looking to add some worms to my beds to expedite things, I mean... I'm confident they will show up eventually, but I just don't want to wait.  I went so far as to post a want ad on craigslist for local worms.  Really you shouldn't think that so weird; people farm worms for bait, they are worm farmers.

"My buddy Harry and I are gonna open a pet shop."

"Well that's nice..."

"I got worms."

"I beg your pardon??"

"That's what we're gonna call it, we're gonna specialize in selling worm farms, you know like ant farms except..."

Mostly "red wigglers" which aren't ideal but better
than nothing

That's an easy one and I know Vinessa will get it but bonus points are of course available.

Back on topic: So I struck out with the CL ad and then Today I was digging around in my raised bed and hot damn what'ya know!  Worms, TONS of them, so many in fact I started harvesting them and in about 20 minutes I'd say I had a 150 or so.  I opened up my raised bed (the news ones that need worms) and dumped them in.  A beneficial side effect is that I basically cultivated the entire raised bed!  Win-win.

NOT a Failure

savoyed leaf spinach popping up for some sun

I must confess that I've been worried about my recent sowing not emerging, I was sure that I had done something wrong.  There seemed to be some "crusting" - was it too think for the seeds to push through?  Did I let the soil dry out too much?  Did I keep it too wet?  Is it too cold?
My seeds germinated and emerged in 2-3 days indoors and Yesterday was the 7th day since I sowed (sp?) them.  Late last night while on slug patrol a small bit of color caught my eye, I looked closer and it was a seedling!

You guessed it - no help

Sow (ha) I feel better now. I purchased three more 6 packs of peas because everyone likes them so much.  I ripped down a rough-sawn 2x6 into (6) strips to make two new trellises for the peas.  I also used some of the branches from my California Pepper in a pathetic attempt to replicate something from the pages of Sunset magazine.  So pathetic in fact I won't be sharing photos at this time.

Trench Composting

Trench 8" down, toss in kitchen waste,
chop, add water and cover.  Easy!

I've been interested in so-called "trench composting" for awhile now and decided to finally put it to the test.  Trench composting is simply digging a trench in the dirt and burying kitchen scraps.  You don't retrieve the result, it's simply a passive technique to dispose of waste while enriching the soil.  Should attract worms and other beneficial yard citizens.

I've been on the hunt for a spoiled produce source to bump my nitrogen levels in my compost and also realized the same source could serve as a trench composting source.  After stopping by Produce World only to have the manager and his crappy attitude tell me "Yeah, other people have asked for spoiled produce but we don't keep it separate from the glass and other trash." "Are you willing to separate it if I supply you a container?" "No, I don't want to"  Next stop was TJ's and the manager informed me that some food kitchen or something comes by and grabs their stuff.  Hmpphh!... well fine!

I did two trenches side by side, this one a
bit more shallow to test if it matters.

Then I'm driving by and see "Edible Arrangements" and remember my neighbor Frank telling me months ago that he wanted to ask them for compost ingredients.  I stopped, met John who had a great attitude and told me he had actually been LOOKING for a recipient for all his fruit waste. Long story short he's going to ask his guys to throw their scraps into a container I left for them.  John had a great attitude and seemed truly relieved to have someone walk in and ask for the very junk he responsibly wanted to handle.  While I was there I grabbed a box of pineapple tops from the dumpster.

I'll dig up a section in about a month or so and see what it looks like.  Pineapple tops are pretty tough and probably not the best to test with but oh well, Tomorrow I should have a tub full of watermelon, cantaloupe, etc. to test with in another trench.

Maintenance Day

Nice to have the path cleared, it's been overgrown for so long.

Finished up the planter between my garage and path to farm entrance.  Mom came over and kicked butt again helping me out.  She cleared a bunch of weeds, trimmed back my geraniums, cleaned up planter behind my dining room and some other stuff.  Nice as always to have her around, it's good for both of us.  I hauled the bags of amendment to the back, chopped up some big tree branches and generally cleaned up the back.

Thanks Mom!

Half Speed

What $187.62 looks like. Kids take note: BRASS hose
fittings, corona WOOD handle shears, RUBBER garden
hose.  Don't cheap out, it's not worth it.

I should have just stayed in bed Today, at least that's how I felt mid afternoon.  Had one of those days where my brain never woke up and I was moving at half speed, making mistakes and generally not executing very well on my plans.  Although I was retarded (hey, wait a minute!  It's completely appropriate for me to use that word in this context) I did still get some things done.  Started the day with coffee and bagels with Sarah before she took care of her own business. Then off to Home Depot to get supplies and bumped in to my good buddy Chris (who just bought a house around the corner)  We were cracking up because we're such "home owners", up early "buying supplies" rather than nursing a level 4 (fatal to a small child or animal) hangover or trying to figure out how to get OUT of Mexico.  Not that we don't still have fun...

Just out of frame is my To-Do list which proved quite ambitious for someone as retarded as myself.  Top of the list was to tap into my 3/4" water supply that runs around the perimeter and install a new spigot for Southern water access.  I'm a competent plumber, I re-piped my own house, relocated my hot water heater from interior to exterior, etc.  I never thought a simple spigot drop would be a challenge.  But then again I didn't take into consideration my retarded state.  First sub-assembly was a 4' section of 1/2" copper with a street el to 1/2" NPT female end.  The other end had a brass 90°  again NPT to take the ball valve.  Simple.  After sweating the last piece on I realized I paid NO attention to the orientation of the fittings, so instead of have the two 90° oriented the same way they were off on this weird 34.362° angle.  Back to the mapp, get the solder flowing and rotate the piece.  Wipe it down, done.  Nope, 180° in the wrong direction (retarded).  Repeat previous process of heating, rotating and cooling and I finally have my finished assembly.  This should have been my sign to go back to bed, or watch a movie or sleep or anything but try to accomplish something meaningful.

Persistence pays off!  I struggled on and finally finished the job.  After this I cleaned up a bit, did a bit of weeding (that's the right pace!) and gave some attention to the compost.  Another of my items on my list was to install a dedicated hose for my compost area and I've already put it to good use.

Shredded some shrub cuttings, picked up dog poop, cut some new suckers of the orange trees, cleaned up nails from the pallet-bench project and then finally called it a day.  I'm now in the office, another to-do list insight however this one contains only programming and process design items.  This should be good.

Spinach Crystals

New spinach leaves have these great crsytal-like particles all over their leaves.  I've checked and they aren't insects so I'm not concerned.  I'm becoming more and more of a macro photography fan, it's so fun to capture details with so much resolution.

The light bouncing off the wet dirt and making the leaves glow translucent is nice too.  I think I like this photo!

see those holes in the bed on the bottom right?
Bad Dog!!

Moved my new bench into the farm area where I put it right to work potting-up my tomatoes.  I've got to admit that there is something so right about standing in the yard at the bench, hands caked in dirt and mud, dog walking around smelling and peeing on stuff, sun going low behind the trees and just..... relaxing.  I don't do that very often.

Ran out of containers to plant up to and decided that 1 gal. was too big anyways.  As an experiment I devised a simple partition of cardboard to split the volume into 4 equal(ish) sections.  The roots can shoot deep which is what I'm mostly concerned about.  Physically isolating the roots should make transplanting less stressful due to reduced root damage separating the plants.

Old cardboard, razor and a sharpie

Pallet Potting Bench

I've been wanting a "potting bench" outside, near my beds.  I'll use it to start seedlings, take notes, pot-up or transplant, etc.  I'm a big fan of using pallets to construct stuff.  In the past I've always used them as they are, never bothering to modify them for what I need.  That changes with my most recent project.  I took a break from coding for an hour Today and banged out my bench.

Start with these

Do a bunch of this

*Some planning, measuring and cutting and you have

*It's 6' long so I had to use some existing scrap wood for the 6' rails.  SOOooo it's not ALL pallet, but damn close.

Tips on working with pallets:

• Pallet wood is typically really crummy, split, cracked and beat up wood - but that's where the great look comes from.  Special care needs to be taken when working with wood like this, if you aren't careful you will split this stuff just for looking at it wrong.
• Drill pilot holes before nailing
• Never use screws - the tapered head acts as a splitting wedge
• When prying boards off the frame, alternate from side to side and work the board up SLOWLY - once you get it about 1/2" up, smack it down which will usually leave the nail heads exposed for easy removal

Everyone Should Do This

Dinner time.  Put on my headlamp, grab a bowl and scissors and head to the garden for salad ingredients.  It can't get any fresher than that.  Everyone should grow their own food.

red leaf lettuce (awesome! for cut-n-come again), swiss chard and spinach