Saturday, May 16, 2009

The race is on

Rose's kids playing in the feeder at about two weeks old. Buck left and doeling right - yet to be named.
Maggie's doeling above at a week old. She is sooo pretty and looks so like her mom. Both sister and brother below.

Plants lined up in the hallway waiting for a ride up to the greenhouse. On the left are our two tubs of chicks. One tub has ten week old Americanas and the other has seven Welsummers and four Sexlinks. Honey is taking care of eleven chicks on her own up in the chicken house. They will be on pasture here in the next week.
Above are various starts growing under lights. We have three shelves including this one set up, each holds four flats, and I've got a few extra flats that go back and forth between outside and various windows. Most of the flats are comprised of six packs, but there are also three and four inch pots holding tomatoes, squash, eggplants and herbs. Today I'm moving the most established, root bound and hardiest up to the greenhouse to make way for peas, nasturtiums, sunflowers and beans. A lot of vegetable and flower seed that is generally direct seeded benefits from being started indoors here. I find that even peas and beans, corn and squash all produce earlier if started in warm soil indoors and then moved outside. The trick is to get them sprouted and growing before transplanting, but you don't want them outgrowing their pots or they may not recover or take off once transplanted.
Yesterday we had twelve cubic yards of garden soil delivered. We weren't sure if the dump truck was going to be able to put the soil where we wanted it, but he got pretty close. He was also able to drive around our upper loop, which was quite a feat, as it is steep with tight corners. The race is on. Today we will be shoveling and hauling dirt. I'm hoping to get the potatoes and carrot seed in today. Followed by onions and peas. Maybe get tomatoes into the greenhouse by tomorrow.
It is a race here (as it probably is everywhere) to get everything planted and growing. Early planting is a gamble and caution is advised. The planting out date is June first and Fairbanks is often hit by late frosts, which we mostly avoid due to our higher elevation. I hope to have everything planted by the first of June with the exception of some succession planting. I'll be saving beans and squash for last. I've hardly begun thinking of how to arrange flower starts. Once everything is in it will be time to start thinking about planting perennial strawberries, raspberries and a couple apple trees. What an enticing and overwhelmingly delightful time of year!

1 comment:

The Three Little Bears said...

I am so jealous of your soil. lol. A year ago, I would have been like, eh - topsoil - who cares. But now I am drooling. I'm also envious of your plants. Chickens, deers and rabbits keep eating all mine. It's a neverending war of mother nature agains mother nature. :)