He helped me water my sprouting bean seeds.

“Please let me hoe the garden Uncle Lee”.

If I may say so, I think he did an excellent job taking out the weeds.

He wasn’t sure what he thought about the chickens.

So he took over my garden hose instead and tried to figure out how to use it himself.

We have big news: I have officially lost my mind. I had talked myself out of raising any baby chicks this year to replace the 8 annoying chickens. Then we went to the feed store to get some more seed potatoes and I broke down after looking at the baby chicks. ARG!!!! So we came home with 3 Rhode Island Reds, 3 Red Sex Links, and 3 mystery chicks (probably Araucanas) that were half priced. A couple days later, at a different farm store, I picked up 2 Black Australorps and 2 Welsummers. The bad news is that Lee has banned me from feed stores until chick season ends. The good news is that the chicks are outside in the brooder rather than in my house. Thank goodness for the reconfigurable chicken house Lee built last year.

We weeded around Lee’s hops, thinned them, laid down a nice layer of composted pig manure, and covered it in bark-o-mulch. This picture is several days old–they have already grown two feet since it was taken. We are expecting a pretty nice crop this year.

We ran out of our fertilizer mix like we do every year, so it was time to make up a new batch. We use Steve Solomon’s “Complete Organic Fertilizer” recipe for everything in the garden. The formula is designed to maximize vegetable nutritional value, without encouraging needlessly bulky plant growth. It has worked well for us for several years now, but we also need to find a source for compost to maintain the soil organic matter content. While some people fertilize only with compost, in western Oregon that can encourage symphyla infestation (we have enough problems with them already). The chicken coop only yields enough compost for a couple garden beds each year, and when we eventually get sheep they will be on pasture full time (no handy manure piles).

We had to replant tomatoes as I planted them earlier then I usually do (kicking myself) and a cold snap came through and killed them.

When I was watering our cole crops today I was smashing cucumber beetles left and right. It looks like it’s going to be a bad year on that front.

We planted our last row of potatoes tonight.

I planted a row of winter squash and Lee set up the drip irrigation for it. We bought the starts at a plant sale for our local youth farm. We have so much of the garden planted right now that we are running out of room in the existing beds. I feel so on top of things!

Lee got three pots of timber bamboo today. He is very excited and has plans of making bamboo fences and structures. The next couple days will probably find us preparing a permanent location for a bamboo grove.

As an insulation product, wool has significant advantages. It is about R3.3 per inch, putting it in the same class as fiberglass, but without the associated itchiness, toxic binders, or hazardous dust. It is naturally fire resistant, insect resistant, sound dampening, and moisture buffering. Finally, wool is a renewable resource with far lower embodied energy costs than fiberglass, foam, or rock wool. The only real disadvantage is price–even the scraps used in insulation are labor-intensive to produce.

From an installer’s perspective, sheep wool insulation is wonderful compared to traditional fiberglass or rock wool insulation. Rock wool is the worst to handle and I always suit up in coveralls and safety glasses before I touch it. Despite those precautions, I feel itchy even after a shower. The new improved fiberglass insulation I’ve handled causes a tiny bit of itching but really isn’t bad. Sheep wool insulation is the only one I’ve installed in my pajamas and tank tops. There’s no itching! I just wish it was a little easier to cut.

So far, we are only using the wool insulation in the upstairs end walls. The inner layer of each end wall was framed in 2x3s so we can pull each batt in half to cover twice as much area. (Six inch thick sheep wool batts evenly tear into two three inch thick batts.) During the 3 years since we bought the wool bale, Lee forgot that it was intended for 16 on center, and he had the walls framed at 24 on center. This meant we had to cut each batt in half length wise and install them sideways. Lee used sheep shears to cut the bats in half.

I found the sheep shears hard to use, so I ended up using kitchen shears for trimming ends that were too long.

Once the wool bats were in place I tacked them up with a staple gun. The whole process was super easy, but time consuming.

The picture below is a finished end wall using the sheep wool insulation. Unlike most building products, it has a pleasant smell like a hay barn or a horse blanket.

We plan to use sheep wool insulation in a few other areas of the house, so we are going to have to track down another source for the batts.

In the next picture, you can clearly see where the beds were last year. They tilled up super nice compared to the former walk paths. (Compaction in action.) Further to the left, the ground hasn’t been used in three years and will require considerably more passes to break up the soil to an appropriate depth.

Lee wanted to use raised beds this year. Raised beds increase the amount of loosened topsoil we have to work with, help the soil dry out sooner so they can be worked earlier in the year, and keep the growing areas well defined so we don’t step in the beds and compact the soil. That’s the theory anyway. We will see how we like them.

Three years ago we planted our first six blueberry bushes along the edge of the garden. We quickly realized they were in a bad location. We need to lower the soil pH for the blueberries but raise it in the garden, so having them right next to each other causes an unresolvable conflict of soil chemistry. They are also constantly in the way (especially when you are trying to turn a large tiller at the row end). Since then we’ve been planting blueberries along the northern garden fence, in an area we’ve set aside for perennial food crops. Lee moved two of the misplaced blueberries last year and is determined to move the rest this year. For the most recent move, he sliced out a cube of soil around the blueberry using a digging hoe and dug a square hole at the destination. Then he moved the clod of dirt in a carefully orchestrated debacle involving a piece of plywood, a shovel, a mallet, a hoe, and me. It was quite the project. Only three more to go…

I found most of the asparagus has returned. They were lost in a sea of weeds. I think we may actually get to harvest some this year if we can keep the weeds down. I’ve read that asparagus like salty soil. Has anyone tried salting their asparagus beds to reduce the weed load?

There has been a lot of weeding going on. Even though Lee has his new tiller toy he is still using his hoe for weeding and I’ve been getting dirty hands. The weeds are growing like crazy, but we are catching up.

One of my 2009 vintage seed rows sprouted with a vengeance. These turnips were the most successful row of old seed. Everything else is spotty. I think I may need to thin these a tiny bit …

It’s not that I gave up on fixing it. I just let other projects divert my attention for the last 11 months. However, with summer on the horizon and another season of fighting loosing battles against the weeds, I decided it was time to order the remaining replacement parts from our local BCS dealer.

This put thoughts of BCS tools back in my mind–a subject that I tend to get very enthused about. (I think it’s the absurdly awesome mental image of cutting hay with a blue garden tiller mounting a 5 foot sickle bar while being towed on a sulky.) So, one thing led to another … first I was browsing (and drooling over) the implements list, then I was searching Craigslist, and finally I came home with this:

That would be a BCS 725 tiller with an 8HP Kohler engine and the BIO100 chipper/shredder attachment. I got both for less than the original (still not working) BCS 830 cost. The BCS 725 is at least 18 years old and uses the older spline PTO attachment. Spline-to-3-jaw adapters are readily available, so it’s not a big disadvantage. (If you are looking at a used market BCS tractor, you should consult the BCS model chart available here to determine age, compatibility, and basic features.)

My particular BCS 725 was a single owner machine, bought from our local dealer and serviced there regularly. The tiller sat indoors, as evidenced by its near total lack of rust. The motor still starts on the first pull. The seller said he barely used the tiller implement, which I confirmed by checking the tines:

They are practically new. Funny how much easier it is to buy something used when you are familiar with the product. Immediately after we got home I took the tiller out to the garden and shredded some grassy walkways. This may be the first year our garden doesn’t look like a sod farm.

The chipper was left outside more (thus the rust), but with only two moving parts there’s not a lot that can go wrong. I have to admit that I’ve wanted one of these BIO100 chippers since I first read about them. The chipping blade can handle 3″ limbs. Behind the blade are 28 swinging hammers and the main flywheel weighs 37 pounds. It’s built like a tank, weighing 210 lbs before you attach the tractor, and the design has changed little in the last 20 years. There’s just one problem: they cost $1600 retail. Fortunately, through the wonders of Craigslist, I got the tractor, tiller, and chipper for about 2/3rds of that.

I may not have a garage full of Italian-made sports cars, but I now have a shed full of Italian-made garden tillers and that seems so much more practical!

The new ramp allows us to keep the human-sized door closed, which discourages wild birds from using the chicken feeder. The chickens adapted to the new door rather quickly, and it’s funny to watch them run up and down the ramp. I wanted a picture of the chickens milling about, but of course they all decided to keep their distance least I try something funny–like take their picture.

Evil says, “HEY, stop looking at my butt.”

Evil the rooster had his pen mowed. He wasn’t exactly chipper with all the activity, but he did his best to strut his manly stuff and look suitably concerned.

Lee tilled up several garden beds by hand with his grub hoe. He said the soil broke up beautifully. These beds have been in use for several years now, and spent the recent winter months under a sheet compost of chicken litter.

I prepped the new beds with Steve Solomon’s fertilizer mix and worked it in.

I filled up my remaining beds with seeds and starts.

Grow little broccolies, grow!

There was an old Brussels sprout plant left behind from last season that sprouted the most delicious and delectable tender shoots. As you can guess, Lee and I were munching on them.

Lee’s Note: Brussel sprouts must be the world’s most overachiever vegetable. First they produce a tall stalk covered with dozens of Brussel sprouts. If left uneaten for months, they next head out a single larger cabbage. The cabbage eventually bursts, the stalks tip over from the weight, and an abundance of Broccoli Rabe sprouts from the main stalk. I’m fascinated to see what it will produce next–hopefully chocolate!

Lee spent a couple evening hours on three days and made an amazing amount of progress clearing out blackberries with his grape hoe. I followed after him and raked up all the dead grass and bramble mix. We want to plant some grass seed here to help compete with the inevitable regrowth of the blackberries.

Lee also dug out the biggest blackberry root either of us had ever seen.

Finally, we got the chainsaw going and started cutting firewood from the nut trees that broke up in the snow storm. There are so many small trunks that it’s a slow process. On the plus side, no splitting!

The rains have finally ended and my cold is on the decline, so I have high hopes for this next weekend.

I call the picture below my “2009 garden row.” I’ve heard it was a good year for … um … carrots. Obviously, the 2009 vintage of carrots was so sought after that you can no longer find them in stores. So I’ve heard.

I’ve also decided to skip the metal garden label stakes we have and just use split cedar shingles with permanent marker labeling. I’ve found that the wood stakes last longer in the rain than masking tape labels on the metal stakes. What do you all use for garden row labels?

I’m actually really excited because I feel so prepared for this garden year. Not that I am of course, but because I went through my Maritime Northwest Garden Guide to find what I can plant this month. Then I sorted through my garden seed, picked out those varieties, and labeled my stakes. All I need now is prepared garden beds and I’m set.

If you live in the Northwest and you haven’t heard of Maritime Northwest Garden Guide, I strongly recommend it. It is one of my two favorite gardening books, Steve Solomon’s Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades being the other. What I LOVE about this book is it provides month by month planting guides with lists of vegetable, so you know what you should be planting or starting under cover at any given time. I don’t have a good memory for this sort of thing, so the book is my yearly reference. It also calms Lee down when he is pestering me about whether I have planted cucumbers or broccoli yet. I can pull out this book and tell him I DON’T have to do it, because it’s not listed for this month. Basically, it’s a marital gardening life saver. hehe

Right after we left on vacation, a freak storm hit Oregon and buried everyone in snow. I couldn’t believe it. We left and missed the snowstorm of the decade! (We were getting a sunburn in D.C. at the time.) Anyway, I guess things were a real mess here, nearly everyone was out of power due to fallen trees, and emergency snow routes were in effect. I didn’t even know we had snow routes!?! Our neighbor, whom we love to pieces, was taking care of our chickens and cats. He called to say we had limbs down all over.

The day after we got back, we went outside to survey the damage. I was shocked to discover that a number of our wild Hazel nut trees were completely flattened. I didn’t think anything could take out a Hazel nut tree other than chainsaws and dynamite.

It looks like we are going to have a firewood project coming up. The weight of the snow broke up their root stocks into pieces. We don’t mind that these particular trees were killed because they are really just big weeds. (Filbert trees need proper trimming to produce well. Most of ours were planted by squirrels with no arborist training.)

We started collecting broken tree limbs and building an enormous burn pile with them. All I have to say is only crazy people start hauling limbs the day after they get back from vacation. It felt like I was moving though mud and finally I gave up. We will finish cleaning up later this week after the jet lag has worn off.

We had a huge pile of limbs in our front yard which we did clean up before I decided lounging in bed sounded like a better idea. The tree in our front yard makes really groovy looking cones that you don’t see very often because the limbs are so high. When they do fall they look like grenades and feel heavy like rocks. This isn’t a tree you want to park your car under. I decided to get crafty (lack of sleep can make you do funny things) and had a Martha Stewart moment. Instead of a pine cone vase arrangement inside my house I made a pine cone arrangement in a stump. HA! Take that Martha!!

We mowed before we left but the grass is out of control. Hopefully the weather stays nice so I can start some mowing later this week. Mowing grass when it is up to your armpits is never a fun project.

Some of the fruit trees are blooming already. YEAH!

The Camellia is putting on a show.

So is the Magnolia. I’m surprised the huge snow storm didn’t freeze all the flower buds and wreck the blooming.

The flowering Quince is also out in bloom.

We were shocked to see how much our garlic sprouted up while we were gone. I guess now that we are back home we need to get serious about gardening.

It’s good to be back home. In the evenings during our trip we would watch HGTV shows (we don’t have cable at home) which really made us want to go home and start drywalling and painting. Now we just need the good weather we experienced while away to stay here for us. We have so much to do this summer.