Early Corn Planting

Blue Corn

Blue Corn plot to be a Three Sisters Garden across the driveway, next to perennial herb garden.

Second Blue Corn plot, also slated to become a Three Sisters Garden

Farming in the Rocky Mountains

Tomatoes getting their first true leaves.

Blue Flax Flower

Hot Peppers: Habanero, Jalapeño, Cayenne

Spring in the Mountains

Garlic bed closest to cistern, with plum and currant and chokecherry trees

Another shot of that same garlic

Currant

Happy hens come running

We Don't Buy Lemons Anymore

 We have just this one lemon tree and for over a month now it has supplied us with all our citrus needs. So add lemons to the list of things we used to buy at stores or wherever... now we grow them ourselves. We have not bought eggs since we first got chickens almost two years ago, we harvest our own wood heat, tons or veggies in season and whenever else possible. We have slowly shifted our growing efforts to being a 365 days a year operation. Water catchment and irrigation is about to be a full blown, off the grid operation. With an upgrade of a water pump and setting up irrigation hoses we want to get a solar panel and batter hooked up to the electric pump and make that whole system self sustaining. Everything on our small farm is a low input work in progress. The lemon tree is a lot of work but the rewards are immeasurable.

Anyways, enjoy these photos of our lemons all in different stage from a budding flower to a fully ripe meyer lemon hanging off the tree in our living room not five feet from me as I type this .

Building a Greenhouse

Three reclaimed doublepane windows make up each side of this simple A frame.

Growing Food

We have a lot going on here this season. In our new hoop house we have seedlings germinating!

-Mizuna
-Spinach
-Kale
-Carrots
-Lettuce

some of these are already up and we just need to cover it up a little more to increase moisture and germination.

Propigating Hops From Rhizomes

When we first started this garden blog a few years ago we got a female Chinook hop plant. It has since given us bitter and aromatic flowers every season that have been used in all the homebrews from the Spotty Dog. It is also spreading like crazy and it is time to divide it up a bit.

Supermoon & Planting

Tonight's Supermoon rising over the mountains

Sowing carrots, spinach, mizuna, kale and lettuce.

Mini Hoop House for a Mini Farm

 Mini hoop house (16' x 3')

Chickens Don't Just Make Eggs...

...they also make manure.

 We are amending the soon to be herb garden with a mixture of straw, manure and half broken down food scraps. This is a very rich mix and helps hold water as well as bring nutrients to the soil. We are still building up this garden (the one we buried pots in last year and grew chiles) We are planning on planting mostly perennial herbs here.

Seeds

We went to Plants of the Southwest this afternoon and picked up some seeds. A great place for native trees, shrubs, veggies and herbs. The Santa Fe location is very nice, complete with an adobe building and a rammed earth/ log beam building. Also a really nice adobe retaining wall as you drive in. They also have an Albuquerque location we have yet to check out.

Seeds we picked up today include:

-Purple Podded Pole Bean (100 seeds)
-Carrots- Chantenay & Touchon (200 seeds ea.)
-Early Wonder Tall Crop Beets (200 seeds)
-Mizuna (100 seeds)
-Dwarf Blue Curl-leaf Kale (100 seeds)
-Lettuce Cutting Mix (500 seeds)

Perennial Herb garden:
-Echinacea Angustifolia (50 seeds)
-Oregano (100 seeds)
-Chives (100 seeds)
 -Perennial Arugula (100 seeds)

To be started in trays inside:
-Cherokee Purple Tomato (50 seeds)
-Genovese Basil (100 seeds)

Redesigned Cold Frames

New design is way more passive-solar. Up against the footings of the house the sun's energy is much better utilized.

Look Out Future Generations of Garden Pests!

 This pregnant Praying Mantis had been hanging around our front door for a few days so we relocated her to the 3 Sisters garden area.

More Canning and More Coldframes

 Did four more quarts of some nice yellow and red organic tomatoes. (all free by the way)

Uh-Oh, Frost Comes To Town

 A light frost zapped most of the leaves on the squash plants, cucumbers, peppers. Whatever else was a bit sensitive. Not much production going on anyways. We have had some cool nights for a few months now so most of these plants get stunted from that. Plus the intense heat of the day and the dryness don't help much.

Hopi Blue Corn Harvest

 Hopi Blue Corn:

Thank You Rain

we got a nice, steady inch and a half of rain in the last 24 hours.

Summer is Fading Fast.

some harvesting happening but mostly just busy. Cutting firewood, splitting and stacking. Getting ready for what The Old Farmer's Almanac is calling a dry, mild winter. Still want a pile of wood the size of the house. Making pickles tomorrow and canning tomatoes next week. three batches of homebrew done. Planting kale from our seed in a coldframe soon too. Many exciting things happening down on the Spotty Dog mini-farm. more soon. photos are hard to take when you are busy living life. we will try. this is an especially beautiful time of year in Northern New Mexico. Just feels like winter is creeping up on us and the wood pile needs to multiply. along with our pantry stock.

some recent fotos:

Sunflowers are pretty:

Putting Up Kale

Kale to be harvested:

Growing Food For Ourselves

harvest basket: