well, december brought massive amounts of rain and our yard flooded like it never has before. february brought a huge snow storm and we got over 2 ft of snow. this isn’t much for people in higher elevations, but we are next to the coast so it was a lot for us. now spring is here and the crocus, tulips, and daffodils are blooming. the greenhouse is full of seedlings just waiting for last frost to be planted. now that the weather is warming up we are able to harvest mustard greens, kale, spinach, chard, and carrots. there is still some kohlrabi and beets in the garden, but i’m not sure how they will taste now that they have overwintered.
Grass has taken over the first terrace. My hubby has made some new best friends while he is clearing it out. Although it seems like most of the garden should be dead now, we still have apples, squashes, beets, potatoes, onions, leeks, kale, swiss chard, carrots, kohlrabi, and borage. There are probably a few things that I’m missing, but we are still enjoying the garden even in this cold rainy weather.
so much has happened in the last year. the garden got a bit neglected. fortunately, we are still having a wonderful harvest despite the weeds trying to take over. we are enjoying most of our meals with the fruits, veggies, and meat from our farm.
now we've had two summers with the greenhouse. this year we put a drip system in to keep the raised beds wet. our tomatoes were much happier this summer. here are a few random pics of the garden.
Our new greenhouse has been up and running for a month or two. So far it is doing a great job and we already have tomatoes and peppers that will be ready soon. The guys did a great job building it and it looks great at the top of the hill. I'm not even upset that Mr Merkel put it where I was supposed to have my rabbit barn. ;-)
the greenhouse is built with three cattle panels to make the structure 12' by 8'
it's high tech with a fan, temperature regulator, and two heaters
We love watching our food grow! Check out the pear apples and peas that are doing very well this year.
But I must confess that I am super excited about the Chinese Lantern that we are finally having success with. I've wanted it for two years now. It is still quite small, so you'll have to wait for pictures.
so just a few days after I last posted, the seeds arrived. since we still don't have a greenhouse, mr merkel set up a growing station in our office closet. it seems a little shady to me, but he's got a fan, timer, heating pads, temperature regulator, and growing lights in there. well, mr greenthumb definitely knows what he's doing because the plants have SPRUNG up quite quickly.
tomatoes and other veggies ready to go outside
the terraces in the backyard are finished and mr merkel has already put in some fruit trees and blueberry bushes. soon he hopes to have his raised beds and greenhouse ready. that is, if it ever stops raining long enough to get some work done.
