Happenings on the Ranch

Yes, it’s that time of year.  I should preface this post by saying the planning and preparing never really stops around here.  Immediately after the final harvest of each season, we take stock of what worked well or not so well, what caused those successes and failures, which of those causes is within our control and what changes we should make for next season.  Okay, I admit there are a few weeks after the end of the season when we just sit back and take a deep breath and enjoy sleeping in a little bit.  But once that respite is over, besides taking care of all our livestock, there is always plenty of planning to do.

Last season hit everyone in the area pretty hard early in the year with severe amounts of rain causing a lot of flooding.  Many crops were lost to this and others got a very late start.  It was a rough beginning to the season but eventually we recovered (for the most part) and had a fairly successful year.  In planning for this year, we decided to get moving on building our greenhouse.  It’s something we’ve thought about before but this year we’ve gotten a great deal on wood which has allowed us to move our thoughts into action.  Arcenio is building the side walls and roof in six-foot sections in the garage until it’s warm enough to put all the pieces together outside.  This will allow us to rotate started seedlings out of the basement earlier, providing for more room for successive started plants while still protecting the young seedlings.  This will also give us the opportunity to protect more sensitive veggies, like eggplant, from unexpected extreme weather conditions.  I can’t wait for the greenhouse to be a reality.  Our design will be a bit of trial and error this year and, after the season is over, we’ll evaluate as usual and make design changes for a second greenhouse next year.

While Arcenio is concentrating on the greenhouse, I’ve put our crop list together and ordered our early seeds.  Most of you know we use organic growing practices, but we haven’t always used organic seeds to start the whole process.  This year we are finding certified organic seeds to be sure the entire process is free of chemicals or anything genetically modified.  We are also growing many heirloom varities.  These varieties are the classic, traditional, non-hybridized versions of much of the produce found in grocery stores.  I’ll do a whole seperate post on these and their benefits later.

Next step is to create a ‘map’ of what will be planted where.  Since we use companion planting and crop rotation, keeping a map each year allows us to know exactly what was planted in each area the previous two years so we keep the pest problem to a minimum.  Rotating the crops also ensures that we are not draining the soil of all of one type of nutrients that a specific crop relies on.  This makes it easier for us to keep the soil rich while not using any chemical fertilizers.  The addition of homegrown compost adds to this.

 2007 Crop Plan

In addition to our veggie crops, our ten-year-old daughter Tessa will be taking on her own endeavor this year.  She will be growing cut flowers for the first time and is enjoying flipping through the seed catalogs to find the best varieties for what she wants to offer.  She’s also busy collecting different interesting containers to sell them in at farmer’s market.  Along with our 13-year-old son Devon’s goat and bird (pigeon and parakeet) breeding ventures, we have a couple of budding entrepeneurs in our midst.

I have to say this time of year is exciting for me; it’s just full of possibilities. Staying organized and on schedule is a must, though, and requires much planning. I’ll be sure to share more as the season moves on.  In the meantime, stay warm and think of fresh veggies!

-Karin