Pookville: My live Farmville Experiment
I unwrap the brown paper package as quickly as I can, revealing the many small white packets within. Each packet is labeled with the name of the seed it contains, printed in Times New Roman on a 5160 label. All heirlooms and open-pollinated, I have chosen some common staples and some exotics for this year's garden.
I'm starting off this spring with a knowledge deficit in that I have never (a) gardened somewhere that doesn't really get hot in the summer, and (b) haven't ever gardened in a place with this much annual rainfall. I tried to research best growing conditions for all of the seeds I got before I actually ordered them, but I may have gotten a little carried away.
I take another look at all the little white packets scattered in front of me, and my suspicions are confirmed - I definitely got carried away.
The peppers might have been a mistake. Though I've never had any trouble with peppers before, I know that this cooler climate could be a problem. My strategy for choosing seeds was simply to put everything I wanted into the shopping cart, and then go back and weed out the ones that weren't suitable for this climate, with a few hopeful exceptions - the peppers being one, the black sea man tomatoes the other. I wistfully deleted all of the heirloom corn from my cart (deleting the Bloody Butcher elicited a heavy sigh of regret) as well as a few other species that are better suited to the south/south east.
This is what I ended up with:
Veggies:
Chiogga Beet
Golden Chard
Sweet Chocolate Sweet Pepper
King of the North Sweet Pepper
Early Purple Vienna Kohlrabi
Bedfordshire Onion
Cherokee Wax Bush Bean
Golden Snow Pea
Dragon's Tongue Bush Bean
Asian Red Winged Pea (a legume, I think, but not a true pea - you can eat the entire plant)
Cocozelle Squash
Boothby's Blond Cucumber
Black Sea Man Tomato
Giant Prague Celeriac
Rapa Centoventina Broccoli Raab
Functional, but not edible:
Birdhouse Gourds
Luffas
Flowers & Herbs
Dog Rose
Black Velvet Nasturtium
Calendula
Bells of Ireland
Sensation Mix & Diablo Cosmos
Soapwort
Licorice
Feverfew
Absinthe
German Chamomile
Basil, Oregano, Rosemary, Parsley
As you might have noticed, it was hard for me to reign it in this year. I can't believe I ended up without zucchini, but at this point, I'm not willing to dig my gardening hole any deeper than I have already. With all this excess space, I'm tempted beyond what any human being should have to endure to pick up that antique iron plow we dug out of the woods, borrow the neighbors' donkey (my new buddy), and plow down the whole damned back yard. The only thing stopping me from making my home a fairy garden paradise are those fucking deer that continue to eat anything green in my yard, even though there are several acres of woods full of nice green deer food behind (and all around) our house.
Today Tyson and I began our first serious discussion regarding the purchase of chickens. I saw that he had finally decided to pull out the Mr. Beer and start brewing, so I rightfully judged that it would be good timing to insert other homesteading subjects. After careful consideration, we're leaning toward getting a couple full grown chickens to start with so that we don't have to deal with raising chicks for 5 months before we get our first eggs. It's still in the planning stage, but I'm pretty sure he's on board. There are a couple of egg producing varieties that are critically endangered, so we're hoping to find some of those. Oddly, even rare chickens are cheap - the same price you'd pay for an eighteen pack of eggs at the grocery store is about what it costs to buy a chick - even the rare varieties. We'd like to find a couple of Buckeyes because they're on the critically endangered list and exhibit all the properties we're looking for in egg layers, but I have a feeling they'll either be hard to find, or too expensive to ship. Tyson's parent's neighbors breed Alcaunas (blue and green egg laying chickens which are on the threatened list), so I have a feeling that's what we'll end up with for now.
For now, I'm starting my seeds in Jiffy pellets and waiting for the last frost before I transplant to outdoors. Our baby tulip tree is right on the verge of blooming, the hyacinths and daffodils are out in force, and a tromp through the woods revealed that the huckleberries, salmonberries, black caps, and raspberries have already sprouted leaves. Huzzah!
True to the adage, winter is surrendering its grip with lion-like ferocity; the weather's been bizarre and severe and spectacular these past few weeks. We've had frequent hail, snow followed by warm days, heavier rain than we've seen all winter, and high winds that bend the pines nearly in half. Everywhere I look there are green leaves and green flowers and green shoots and colored blossoms and red-breasted birds and big fat squirrels, all in motion.
Welcome, spring. I'm glad you've finally arrived.
I'm starting off this spring with a knowledge deficit in that I have never (a) gardened somewhere that doesn't really get hot in the summer, and (b) haven't ever gardened in a place with this much annual rainfall. I tried to research best growing conditions for all of the seeds I got before I actually ordered them, but I may have gotten a little carried away.
I take another look at all the little white packets scattered in front of me, and my suspicions are confirmed - I definitely got carried away.
The peppers might have been a mistake. Though I've never had any trouble with peppers before, I know that this cooler climate could be a problem. My strategy for choosing seeds was simply to put everything I wanted into the shopping cart, and then go back and weed out the ones that weren't suitable for this climate, with a few hopeful exceptions - the peppers being one, the black sea man tomatoes the other. I wistfully deleted all of the heirloom corn from my cart (deleting the Bloody Butcher elicited a heavy sigh of regret) as well as a few other species that are better suited to the south/south east.
This is what I ended up with:
Veggies:
Chiogga Beet
Golden Chard
Sweet Chocolate Sweet Pepper
King of the North Sweet Pepper
Early Purple Vienna Kohlrabi
Bedfordshire Onion
Cherokee Wax Bush Bean
Golden Snow Pea
Dragon's Tongue Bush Bean
Asian Red Winged Pea (a legume, I think, but not a true pea - you can eat the entire plant)
Cocozelle Squash
Boothby's Blond Cucumber
Black Sea Man Tomato
Giant Prague Celeriac
Rapa Centoventina Broccoli Raab
Functional, but not edible:
Birdhouse Gourds
Luffas
Flowers & Herbs
Dog Rose
Black Velvet Nasturtium
Calendula
Bells of Ireland
Sensation Mix & Diablo Cosmos
Soapwort
Licorice
Feverfew
Absinthe
German Chamomile
Basil, Oregano, Rosemary, Parsley
As you might have noticed, it was hard for me to reign it in this year. I can't believe I ended up without zucchini, but at this point, I'm not willing to dig my gardening hole any deeper than I have already. With all this excess space, I'm tempted beyond what any human being should have to endure to pick up that antique iron plow we dug out of the woods, borrow the neighbors' donkey (my new buddy), and plow down the whole damned back yard. The only thing stopping me from making my home a fairy garden paradise are those fucking deer that continue to eat anything green in my yard, even though there are several acres of woods full of nice green deer food behind (and all around) our house.
Today Tyson and I began our first serious discussion regarding the purchase of chickens. I saw that he had finally decided to pull out the Mr. Beer and start brewing, so I rightfully judged that it would be good timing to insert other homesteading subjects. After careful consideration, we're leaning toward getting a couple full grown chickens to start with so that we don't have to deal with raising chicks for 5 months before we get our first eggs. It's still in the planning stage, but I'm pretty sure he's on board. There are a couple of egg producing varieties that are critically endangered, so we're hoping to find some of those. Oddly, even rare chickens are cheap - the same price you'd pay for an eighteen pack of eggs at the grocery store is about what it costs to buy a chick - even the rare varieties. We'd like to find a couple of Buckeyes because they're on the critically endangered list and exhibit all the properties we're looking for in egg layers, but I have a feeling they'll either be hard to find, or too expensive to ship. Tyson's parent's neighbors breed Alcaunas (blue and green egg laying chickens which are on the threatened list), so I have a feeling that's what we'll end up with for now.
For now, I'm starting my seeds in Jiffy pellets and waiting for the last frost before I transplant to outdoors. Our baby tulip tree is right on the verge of blooming, the hyacinths and daffodils are out in force, and a tromp through the woods revealed that the huckleberries, salmonberries, black caps, and raspberries have already sprouted leaves. Huzzah!
True to the adage, winter is surrendering its grip with lion-like ferocity; the weather's been bizarre and severe and spectacular these past few weeks. We've had frequent hail, snow followed by warm days, heavier rain than we've seen all winter, and high winds that bend the pines nearly in half. Everywhere I look there are green leaves and green flowers and green shoots and colored blossoms and red-breasted birds and big fat squirrels, all in motion.
Welcome, spring. I'm glad you've finally arrived.