Mini-Greenhouse Fun

We've had our little "mini" greenhouse for about a year and a half.  Here is a picture of it right after we got it.


http://windyacresnaturalfarm.blogspot.com/2010/11/new-greenhouse.html

Our main purpose for getting it is to have a place to house the tomato and pepper plants we grow  for sale at our farmers' market in the spring.  We start them from seed in our basement.  At first they don't take up much room and grow under lights on shelves, like this:

But as we start transplanting them from the little boxes into 4 inch pots, then the space they consume goes up exponentially.  We have several other sets of shelves like this on the other wall of the basement.  After transplanting, we put them on these other shelves for a couple of weeks to give them time to settle.  Then they get moved out to the "mini" greenhouse.


We don't heat this greenhouse until we put the tomato and pepper plants out there in the spring.  Tom moved the first plants out there last week.  So, the fun is just beginning.  Before long we are going to be "busting at the seams"!


So, what do we do with this little greenhouse in the winter?  Well, we don't heat it.  However, there are things that will grow during the winter even without heat.  One of those is lettuce.  During  a bathroom remodel a couple of years ago, Tom saved a bunch of the drawers from an old vanity that was torn out.  He drilled holes in their bottoms and made them into planter boxes, like this.

These pictures were taken in December.   I enjoyed standing inside this little greenhouse on cold winter days and picking a few leaves for a salad for dinner.  But, this phase is now at an end and these planter boxes are being replaced with flats of pepper plants.  Tomato plants will soon follow.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we can find room for all of them!

Our Aerobic Septic System

One thing about living outside the city limits is that you don't normally have access to city sewage treatment, and you have to have a septic system of some sort to handle your sewage.   These come in 2 flavors, Aerobic and Anaerobic.   Anaerobic systems rely on anaerobic bacteria.  These bacteria do not require oxygen to decompose household waste, after which the waste water runs off into a "leach field" which is a series of porous pipes laid into the soil that gradually release the runoff into the soil and environment.  Anaerobic systems are limited to where they can be installed due to space requirements for the leach field and soil conditions that are not conducive to absorbing the run off.

When we moved here to the farm, there was an old anaerobic system in place and we learned very quickly that the clay soil underlying the leach field could not handle much waste water, especially when the ground was saturated with moisture.  So, if it rained much at all, the soil was not able to absorb any waste water and we very often had sewage back up into our ground floor shower!  To say this was repulsive is an understatement.   

So, we started checking into an Aerobic system to handle the waste water.  Aerobic systems rely on aerobic bacteria to decompose the waste.  These bacteria use oxygen to help break down the waste and generally do a much faster, cleaner job of it than anaerobic bacteria.  However, they do require oxygen.  So, air has to be bubbled through the waste water and this requires electricity to run a small air pump.  Here is an above ground picture of our system:

Our system has two underground tanks.  The first tank holds the waste water while the aerobic bacteria do their work.  As the water rises to the top of the first tank it falls over into the second tank.  In doing so, it runs over a stack of chlorine tablets to further purify it.  The water in this second tank is clear and odorless.   There is a sprinkler system connected to the second tank that is set to come on during the middle of the night and sprinkles the water from the second tank onto the grass at the edge of the yard.

All in all, we've been very happy with our aerobic system.  

Potting Up Chives

My main focus of our farmers' market endeavor is herbs.  If you use the "search" feature on the left of this page to do a search for "herbs", you will see quite a few entries.  In the summer, I cut the fresh herbs, package them in sandwich bags and sell them at the Market.  In the spring, I grow them from seeds which I transplant into 4-inch pots and sell to customers wanting to start their own herb garden or to plant in flower beds.  

A few weeks ago I started some chives from seed.  I used the same technique that I use to start all our bedding plants.  I describe it in my blog entry titled "Start Your Own Seeds".  Here is a link to it:  http://windyacresnaturalfarm.blogspot.com/2011/03/start-your-own-seeds.html.

This past weekend I decided they were ready to transplant.  This is my potting bench that Tom built for me out in the garage.  It is nothing fancy, but serves its purpose just fine.

Instead of the 4-inch pots that we put our tomato and pepper plants in, I use smaller ones.  They come in squares of 4 together.   These are usually called "plug" pots.  The "plugs" are a little larger than an inch square.  To get the chives out of the little clear box that I start them in, I use a plastic knife (a plastic fork works well too).  I gently pry up a little soil to loosen it so I can get the chives out.

Then I separate the little plants.  Below  you can see a couple of the small chive plants laying to the left of the plastic knife.  I've made the picture extra large so you can see the long roots these little plants have.

I then use the knife to make a hole in the middle of a plug and gently tuck the roots down into the hole pressing the soil back around them.  You can see the chives that have already been transplanted to the right of the knife.

If I were transplanting tomatoes, peppers or basil, I would only put one plant per pot.  However, these chives were so tiny that I put 2 or 3 together.

Chives grow rather slowly.  So, I am hoping these get big enough to sell by the middle of April.  That is only 6 weeks away!   Our outdoor market will start the first weekend in April.  That is not very far off.  It will still be fine to plant them out in the garden until June or so when the weather starts getting hot.  Then, it would be best to put them in a bigger pot and save them until the fall.  Many people do not realize that autumn is a very good time to transplant perennial herbs in the garden.  As long as they have several weeks before frost to settle and grow roots, they will usually go dormant and survive the winter just fine.  Then in the spring they will reemerge from the soil ready to grow anew.

Peach Tree Chilling

I love peaches and have wanted to have a peach tree for years.  There was not room for one in our tiny yard in town.   So when we move here to the farm, I had high hopes of planting one.  The first year we were here, we were too busy just trying to cope with tending 5 acres to worry about planting trees.  The second year, we sort of had things under control, but got busy and, before we knew it, it was much too late to plant trees.  But, last spring we had our act together enough that when we noticed our local Atwoods store had fruit trees for sale, we bought a couple of them.


Unfortunately, if you've read this blog this past year, you know that it was the hottest, driest and worst summer on record since the 1930s!   But, knowing how much I loved peaches and wanted those trees to survive, my wonderful husband kept them watered for me.  If it had been up to me, I'm sure they would have died.  They are planted a good ways from the nearest water hydrant.  So, watering them entailed stringing a hose out there to them or carrying water to them.  In either case, not a fun job in 100 degree weather.


Today I noticed they seem very much alive and even have buds that are beginning to swell.

Here is a closer look at the buds I mentioned.

I'm somewhat concerned that it is going to bloom before our last frost this year.  I doubt that I will have many, if any, peaches this year since the trees are so small, but I sure won't have any if the blooms are all killed by a frost.


So, I did a little research about what makes trees bloom early like this.  What I found is very interesting.   Apparently, all fruit trees need to go through a certain number of hours below 45 degrees and above 32 degrees in order to produce a successful crop.  This period is called the "chilling hours" for that species of tree.  If the chilling hour requirement is not met, then the tree is likely to bloom too early and a late frost will kills the blossoms.


The best source I found on this topic is the following link: 


http://ag.arizona.edu/yavapai/anr/hort/byg/archive/chillingreq.html


Hopefully, my trees will receive the right number of chilling hours and reward me with luscious peaches......if not this year, then maybe next.

Warning Signs

You have probably noticed the warning signs on practically everything you buy these days.   They have become so prevalent that we are somewhat calloused to their meanings and to the reasons they are present on objects in the first place.

That is not so much the case with the warning signs on the machinery we have here at the farm.  In fact, most of these signs are downright eye-catching and in some cases humorous.  Our tractor has three such warning signs.  Take this one for example:

This is cautioning you to not raise the front-end-loader bucket too high if you have a heavy load.  Otherwise, it could fall back on you.  That is a scary thought!  And, even though the meaning is clear without reading the fine print, it still looks as if the guy on the tractor is trying to catch whatever that is that is falling on him and I have to laugh a little every time I see this one.

Here is another one.

Again, the meaning is clear.  DO NOT drive on steep slopes.  The fine print on this warning sign adds some other information.  (You can read the words if you click on the picture to make it bigger.)  For example, it says that if you have to use the tractor on a slope, then you can move the wheels farther apart to lower the center of gravity and make it less likely to tip over.  It also says to use the seat belt.  I am embarrassed to say that I was not aware the tractor had a seat belt until I read this sign closely.  Finally, it mentions the ROPS.  That stands for Roll-Over Prevention System.  This is a curved bar that can be mounted on top of the tractor to protect you in case of a roll-over.

Finally, there is this sign.

Of the three signs, this one is the most sobering for me.  Perhaps it is because I've heard news stories of people being electrocuted when a ladder or piece of machinery they are holding onto touches an electric wire.  Fortunately, I don't think any of our electric wires are low enough for this to happen.  But, it is good to have the reminder.

Ever Alert

I've posted many pictures from our wildlife camera and quite a few deer photos were among them.  Today I was going through the pictures from the last few nights and was struck by how vigilant the deer always are.  Here are some pictures of a group of three.

Notice that at least one of them is always on the alert, head up, ears pointing toward whatever danger they think may be lurking in the darkness.  It is rare to see them all eating at one time.


There seems to be this group of three that come together.  And, there is a pair that appear to hang out together.  Here they are.

Again, it is the same story, one or both of them is always on the look-out for danger.  If I scroll through the pictures on the camera fast, then the deer appear to move in a jerky manner as if they are actors in an old movie.   It is really quite comical.

But, then I got to thinking about why these deer seem to be so on guard.  There are really no predators for them to fear around here.  The major predators of deer are wolves and mountain lions, and these animals vanished from this part of the country many years ago.  Of course, we hear about the occasional mountain lion sighting.  But, naturalists generally agree that these animals are just passing through and not here to stay.

It seems that, even though their natural predators are gone from the scene, the deer still retain that innate instinct of survival that makes them alert to danger, even though it may only be imaginary.  Humans possessed that instinct at one time and I suppose we still do to a small extent.  But, thinking along these lines made me wonder what it would have been like to have lived in this country 500 years ago when large predators still walked these parts.  Certainly, humans were one of the predators, but they had to be ever alert, like these deer, in order to not fall prey to one of the others.  I imagine it was pretty difficult to get a good night's sleep in those times!

Compost Ingredients

We save all our kitchen scraps for our compost pile.  We have a plastic container which holds about a gallon that we keep in the cabinet under the kitchen sink.  You can see a picture of it if you look at my post from July 9, 2010.  Here is a link to it:


http://windyacresnaturalfarm.blogspot.com/2010/07/kitchen-compost-bucket.html

When the bucket gets full, we take it out and dump it in our compost pile.  The other day I took the bucket out to dump it and was struck by the variety of materials in it.

On the surface this looks pretty gross, but these are all great ingredients for compost.  There  are old rotten bananas here, broccoli that has been in the frig too long, radishes, potato peelings, coffee filters along with coffee grounds, a couple of cherry tomatoes, kale that is past its prime and house plant trimmings. 


After I dumped these onto the top of the compost pile, I grabbed a bag of leaves and dumped on top.  This creates a series of layers of different materials.  If you were doing this for a home garden, you would want to turn the pile using a pitchfork every 2-3 weeks to mix these layers together.  However, since we just use this small compost bin as a holding place until we can mix them into the larger pile we have out in the field, I don't worry about turning it.


Composting is a wonderful way to recycle your kitchen scraps.   If you don't have room for a compost pile, then just try burying your scraps in your garden.  They will eventually decompose and add nutrients to the soil.