Happy Thanksgiving weekend!
As fitting for this year, our weekend didn't quite go as planned due to weather... I had hoped to finish cleaning up the garden and spread all (or most of) the wood chips, as we usually place our new hay bales out in the garden this time of year.
Alas, with rain and chilly, windy, snowy conditions, I didn't get to spend much time outside at all - although I did bundle up and move the chicken pasture to it's winter location. Next weekend looks better, and I will just have to try to get as much done as possible while I can! The snow has already flown a few times, so despite our long, warm, fall, winter is definitely upon us now.
However, I thought it would be a good time to do a quick update on the homestead activities for 2021, as well as a few notes about gratitude as I usually share this time of year...
As fitting for this year, our weekend didn't quite go as planned due to weather... I had hoped to finish cleaning up the garden and spread all (or most of) the wood chips, as we usually place our new hay bales out in the garden this time of year.
Alas, with rain and chilly, windy, snowy conditions, I didn't get to spend much time outside at all - although I did bundle up and move the chicken pasture to it's winter location. Next weekend looks better, and I will just have to try to get as much done as possible while I can! The snow has already flown a few times, so despite our long, warm, fall, winter is definitely upon us now.
However, I thought it would be a good time to do a quick update on the homestead activities for 2021, as well as a few notes about gratitude as I usually share this time of year...
2021 was definitely an unusual year in the garden! I have never seen a wetter year, and the rain has continued from spring through fall. Right now, the ground is mucky as can be, with mud squishing up wherever I walk - even through the tall grass. The chickens were making quite a muddy mess scratching around the garden fence, so I'm glad to have moved their fencing to a new area for a while...
Challenging as it was at times, I suppose I have to be grateful for the rain. I only had to water regularly for a couple of weeks the entire summer, and my rain tank never got below 2/3 full, which is quite unusual. I know many areas experienced severe drought, so I will count our blessings that we had plenty of water!
Most of our crops actually did quite well this year, with the exception of the tomatoes (which mostly all got blight and died early on, and many rotted on the vine before ripening), and the onions, which refused to come up, despite my buying multiple new packets of seeds and re-planting several times. I had expected a lot of rotten garlic since it tends to prefer drier conditions, but we actually had an excellent crop. The peppers set earlier than ever before due to the warmth, and we also had mountains of tomatilloes and a bumper crop of potatoes. And we had weeks and weeks of amazing and delicious raspberries this year!
Challenging as it was at times, I suppose I have to be grateful for the rain. I only had to water regularly for a couple of weeks the entire summer, and my rain tank never got below 2/3 full, which is quite unusual. I know many areas experienced severe drought, so I will count our blessings that we had plenty of water!
Most of our crops actually did quite well this year, with the exception of the tomatoes (which mostly all got blight and died early on, and many rotted on the vine before ripening), and the onions, which refused to come up, despite my buying multiple new packets of seeds and re-planting several times. I had expected a lot of rotten garlic since it tends to prefer drier conditions, but we actually had an excellent crop. The peppers set earlier than ever before due to the warmth, and we also had mountains of tomatilloes and a bumper crop of potatoes. And we had weeks and weeks of amazing and delicious raspberries this year!
I had planned two garden experiments this year, and was looking forward to analyzing the results. Alas, due to all the rain (and other factors), both of them turned out inconclusive!
Experiment #1: Compare Potato Yield Between Hay Bales & Raised Beds
I have been growing potatoes in hay bales since we moved here and found ourselves with an abundance of hay bales the first year. I love how easy they are to harvest (and clean), and they seem to grow very well in the bales. However, with small harvests the past couple of years, I thought I would try growing a regular (raised) bed of potatoes this year as well and compare the two.
I grew a block of 6 hay bales, right next to a raised bed of approximately the same size (4'x8'). While I didn't count exactly how many potatoes I planted in each, I tried to space them approximately the same distance apart, and estimated the amounts to be fairly similar.
I grew 4 varieties - Yukon Gold, Kennebec, and red-skinned yellow potatoes from the grocery store, as well as a few grocery store russets. I tried to plant approximately the same amount of each in both the bales and the raised bed.
Both grew very well - the plants seemed slightly larger in the raised beds, but the ones in the bales came up earlier, grew faster, and started blooming/maturing sooner. Interestingly enough, the plants in the bed actually died down sooner, so I dug those first. The yield was amazing! We got about 27 lbs from the bed, which rivals our best year from the hay bales. The potatoes were overall very nicely sized and healthy looking, although there was some wire worm damage (which I've never seen in the bale-grown potatoes), and I found a number of rotten ones - possibly due to all the rain? They were, of course, quite dirty, even though I tried to dig them during a slightly drier week.
The plants in the hay bales were still fairly green, so I waited a couple more weeks before pulling those, and that turned out to be a mistake... The voles were absolutely terrible this year, and they had apparently discovered the potatoes before I did. Sadly, I found many potato shreds among the hay, and the remains of what had looked to be several very sizable and perfect specimens. :-(
I hurried to get all the rest out, working into the dark of the evening while swatting numerous mosquitoes from my sweaty brow. In the end, we got just over 22 lbs of potatoes from the block of hay bales - but the number of potato remnants I found were such that the voles very well could have eaten close to 5 lbs of the harvest...
Both the potatoes from the soil bed and from the bales were quite large and healthy - probably from all the rain. There were definitely more rotten ones in the bed, but the voles demolished more than the rot did.
Overall, between the voles and all the rain, it was impossible for me to draw any conclusions about either method providing a superior yield.
Either way, we have more home-grown potatoes this winter than we've ever had before, which I am incredibly thankful for - as potatoes are one of my favorite things ever! :-)
My second experiment was simpler but no more decisive...
Experiment #2: See If Tomatoes Require Less Watering When Mulched with Wood Chips
I have read a number of things about mulching with wood chips, and we have used them in our garden for several years and LOVE them. However, we only use them in the pathways and between beds. I have read that adding them to the soil can be detrimental to plant growth, so we always use grass clippings or leaves for mulching our actual crops.
However, it always seems difficult to water the tomatoes deeply enough with our drip hoses, and seeing how moist the soil remains under a good layer of wood chips, I thought I would mulch the tomato bed with chips this year.
I put the drip irrigation hoses down once the tomatoes were planted, then mulched with grass clippings, and then added a layer of wood chips on top.
I only turned on the irrigation lines on the tomato bed 2-3 times the entire summer, but I couldn't really tell whether the wood chips made a difference or not. For one thing, I don't think I put enough chips on, and once the plants got big, it was hard to add more. Secondly, it rained so much that they really just didn't need hardly any watering anyway! I may try it again with more chips next year and see how it goes...
So that was the garden year - wet, hot, and generally productive. Of course, there were plenty of other challenges besides the rain, such as the voles, and the deer - which finally discovered our garden after 7 years! They chowed down on our beans and tomatoes while we were vacationing in Minnesota, and the second half of the summer was a constant battle of spraying deer repellent, putting up more fencing, and generally trying whatever we could think of to keep them out. Thankfully, they seem to have moved elsewhere for the time being, and with repeated spraying, hopefully I can keep them from coming back next year...
Experiment #1: Compare Potato Yield Between Hay Bales & Raised Beds
I have been growing potatoes in hay bales since we moved here and found ourselves with an abundance of hay bales the first year. I love how easy they are to harvest (and clean), and they seem to grow very well in the bales. However, with small harvests the past couple of years, I thought I would try growing a regular (raised) bed of potatoes this year as well and compare the two.
I grew a block of 6 hay bales, right next to a raised bed of approximately the same size (4'x8'). While I didn't count exactly how many potatoes I planted in each, I tried to space them approximately the same distance apart, and estimated the amounts to be fairly similar.
I grew 4 varieties - Yukon Gold, Kennebec, and red-skinned yellow potatoes from the grocery store, as well as a few grocery store russets. I tried to plant approximately the same amount of each in both the bales and the raised bed.
Both grew very well - the plants seemed slightly larger in the raised beds, but the ones in the bales came up earlier, grew faster, and started blooming/maturing sooner. Interestingly enough, the plants in the bed actually died down sooner, so I dug those first. The yield was amazing! We got about 27 lbs from the bed, which rivals our best year from the hay bales. The potatoes were overall very nicely sized and healthy looking, although there was some wire worm damage (which I've never seen in the bale-grown potatoes), and I found a number of rotten ones - possibly due to all the rain? They were, of course, quite dirty, even though I tried to dig them during a slightly drier week.
The plants in the hay bales were still fairly green, so I waited a couple more weeks before pulling those, and that turned out to be a mistake... The voles were absolutely terrible this year, and they had apparently discovered the potatoes before I did. Sadly, I found many potato shreds among the hay, and the remains of what had looked to be several very sizable and perfect specimens. :-(
I hurried to get all the rest out, working into the dark of the evening while swatting numerous mosquitoes from my sweaty brow. In the end, we got just over 22 lbs of potatoes from the block of hay bales - but the number of potato remnants I found were such that the voles very well could have eaten close to 5 lbs of the harvest...
Both the potatoes from the soil bed and from the bales were quite large and healthy - probably from all the rain. There were definitely more rotten ones in the bed, but the voles demolished more than the rot did.
Overall, between the voles and all the rain, it was impossible for me to draw any conclusions about either method providing a superior yield.
Either way, we have more home-grown potatoes this winter than we've ever had before, which I am incredibly thankful for - as potatoes are one of my favorite things ever! :-)
My second experiment was simpler but no more decisive...
Experiment #2: See If Tomatoes Require Less Watering When Mulched with Wood Chips
I have read a number of things about mulching with wood chips, and we have used them in our garden for several years and LOVE them. However, we only use them in the pathways and between beds. I have read that adding them to the soil can be detrimental to plant growth, so we always use grass clippings or leaves for mulching our actual crops.
However, it always seems difficult to water the tomatoes deeply enough with our drip hoses, and seeing how moist the soil remains under a good layer of wood chips, I thought I would mulch the tomato bed with chips this year.
I put the drip irrigation hoses down once the tomatoes were planted, then mulched with grass clippings, and then added a layer of wood chips on top.
I only turned on the irrigation lines on the tomato bed 2-3 times the entire summer, but I couldn't really tell whether the wood chips made a difference or not. For one thing, I don't think I put enough chips on, and once the plants got big, it was hard to add more. Secondly, it rained so much that they really just didn't need hardly any watering anyway! I may try it again with more chips next year and see how it goes...
So that was the garden year - wet, hot, and generally productive. Of course, there were plenty of other challenges besides the rain, such as the voles, and the deer - which finally discovered our garden after 7 years! They chowed down on our beans and tomatoes while we were vacationing in Minnesota, and the second half of the summer was a constant battle of spraying deer repellent, putting up more fencing, and generally trying whatever we could think of to keep them out. Thankfully, they seem to have moved elsewhere for the time being, and with repeated spraying, hopefully I can keep them from coming back next year...
We had plenty to be thankful for this year besides the bountiful harvest - including our lively and productive chickens, who continue keeping us well-stocked with eggs, even as the days shorten and they have been going through their first molt. We are also very grateful to our amazingly sweet cat, Kitty Dave, who arrived too late for the summer garden, but who has proven to be a quite competent hunter and has drastically cut down our garden vole population just in time to save the winter kale!
We are blessed to have gotten to spend lots of time this year with our wonderful friends and family - both nearby and distant, and we look forward to more visits in 2022.
As we wind down the year, I look forward to the season of rest and reflection before the planning begins for the year ahead. I give thanks for the opportunity for balance that the 4 seasons provide, and appreciate the beauty in the changing landscape - even as leaves give way to bare branches, and the grass fades from green to sere. All is part of the great cycle of life, and I shall do my best to embrace the changes as they come - as God meant for us to do!
And I remain thankful, always, for you, dear reader...
Rose.
We are blessed to have gotten to spend lots of time this year with our wonderful friends and family - both nearby and distant, and we look forward to more visits in 2022.
As we wind down the year, I look forward to the season of rest and reflection before the planning begins for the year ahead. I give thanks for the opportunity for balance that the 4 seasons provide, and appreciate the beauty in the changing landscape - even as leaves give way to bare branches, and the grass fades from green to sere. All is part of the great cycle of life, and I shall do my best to embrace the changes as they come - as God meant for us to do!
And I remain thankful, always, for you, dear reader...
Rose.
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