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Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 13 Entries.
Saturday, January 11 View Page
Flipped the compost pile and watered it in today. It smells like wet spring dirt after a rain.
 
Sunday, January 12 View Page
Sprayed humic acid today and watered it in on the garden patch and the barn patch.
 
Friday, January 24 View Page
Today we flipped the second compost pile and washed all the small drip lines. Hopefully we will spray humic acid this weekend on all the patches. The weather is supposed to be beautiful and in the 60s.
 
Sunday, January 26 View Page
We sprayed bumic acid again on the barn and garden patches. I was going to flip the compost pile but got distracted by kids and puppies and catching cows in the lot to take to the sale barn. We are trying to decide what seeds to grow-looking for one pretty pumpkin and one for weight, one traditional and one grafted watermelon, one bushel gourd, and one green giant squash this year. Just for fun we started some carrot seeds and bushel gourd seeds to practice grafting.
 
Sunday, February 2 View Page
Today we sprayed humic acid on the rye field patch and watered it in well. We also flipped the compost pile. If I ate bon bons I would eat one after burning all those calories- we received about an inch of rain and it was very heavy wet compost. Still doesn't smell tho!
 
Wednesday, February 12 View Page
Spring is on the way! This is the earliest we have had daffodils blooming
 
Saturday, February 15 View Page
Today I mowed the tops of the rye off the barn and garden patches because it was getting very tall. I was thinking the rye might be hard to till in in another month if I let it go. The kids really wanted me to take a picture of this rye that was growing underneath a mat of hay from a bale we had fed earlier in the year. So photo credit to my 7 yr old and the smile award to my 4 yr old.
 
Saturday, February 15 View Page
This is our barn patch. Only in OK could you plant something on the north side of a building on purpose for shade. I grew an experimental pumpkin here last year that did well so I guess we will see what happens.
 
Saturday, February 15 View Page
This is last year's pumpkin patch that I think I am putting into watermelons and possibly a bushel gourd this year. I didn't use the entire patch last year- only a 25x25 spot out of the middle. It is actually a little over 1800 sq ft. It looked like our mower ate a stuffed animal but the truth is the kids brought a bunch of cotton out of our neighbor's field that missed being put in the bale. No stuffed animals were harmed.
 
Saturday, February 15 View Page
This is the last patch. I call it the field patch because it is part of our field. It doesn't have rye because it was covered in stacked haybales here from April to Dec 2019,and I have been feeding our cows and calves their hay here in the hope it adds some organic matter to my sand. The hay was still kind of in clumps and long pieces so I went over it with the mower too. It is supposed to be in the high 60s/ low 70s here tomorrow so I will probably spray humic acid over all the patches and water it in well if I'm not otherwise disposed.
 
Sunday, March 1 View Page
Drenched the last of the humic acid on all the patches and watered well.
 
Wednesday, March 11 View Page
Mowed the rye this evening because it was 10 inches tall and I was thinking it might be hard to til it in if I left it too long. We are expecting rain starting Friday and with spring break next week I am hoping my son will help me make a little hoop house. I am trying an earlier start for one plant to see how it goes.
 
Saturday, March 21 View Page
We cut 35 foot lengths of drip line today and if the weather is nice tomorrow we will till the patches. The weather is supposed to be very nice this week with 60 degree temps most days, and hopefully we can get the patches put together with the drip lines and emitters and shade cloth. As an experiment we were thinking about starting a set of seeds March 26 and putting them out right at April 1 in a small hoop house to keep them warm. At least we have more time to get the patch together with the corona virus keeping us at home. My tomatoes look nice too- we transplanted them into gallon milk jugs from their 6 oz cups and they have already grown since then. Unfortunately my 5 grafts died but that is not entirely unexpected. I will have to practice some more this coming year and see if I can get them to take.
 

 

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