Wow the weather has been fantastic! 600 onions are planted, new row is built for another 600 and it looks like I probably have a total of 3,000 thanks to the supplier being very generous in the bundles! Rain is coming too, yahoo!! I had to spend a little time on some ornamentals today...pruning my roses for the winter. They provide me with so much joy by adding beauty to my dinner table each year. They were huge and luckily I invested in a nice set of loppers...cut the time in half at least!! I am sure it would have taken me at least 5 hours and it only took two. Of course I decided to take them to the dump...the thorns are huge now that the roses are almost 7 years old...and they were just too dangerous to put in the compost pile!! Speaking of compost, wish me luck...Sam gave me a mulcher to borrow to see if it will pulverize the manure and speed up the compost time around here. With turkey, chicken, beef and pork orders going up there is bound to be plenty of manure...just need to get the "cooking time" down as much as possible. I am supplementing with an organic compost I am purchasing for now, but I really prefer the farm to be self-sustainable.... and looking forward to making this work again now that we have grown so much. My husband brought home one ton of the organic compost and it only covered about 150 sf at 2 maybe 3 inches at most...my goal is to amend with 4-6 inches every three years. Thank goodness the new field was amended in the Spring with compost materials from the Bashaw Farm....though I am sure it could have used a few more inches...I think we only hit 4 inches. Onions are going there for now since it is outside...and the plans are to grade it next year for the new 16 x 100 greenhouse. The pig pen is being move in the next few weeks to what is going to become the permanent location for our livestock...Northeast corner of the property, but the old pig pen area is going to make a great location for pumpkins this next year!! We are moving the livestock area because the Southeast corner of the property is the most flat, and so future greenhouses will be slated for that area. 72 Lacinato plants are going in the ground this week...I would have done it a few months ago if I had known how hardy they are. Most greens will overwinter through freezes, but the Lacinato developed a beautiful frost on them, and then defrosted like nothing happened. Wow!! Of course everything is practically at a standstill now, but once the solstice hits on the 22nd everything will being to take off... including me with longer hours of daylight available! Moonstruck signing out!
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