Life As We Know It

So one of Knight and my stated goals is to be self sufficient.  He'd like to spend less money on groceries.  I'd like to live in 1850 and live off the land.  Ok not -literally-, I like the internet too much for that.  But I do have a fondness for crafts of the era... when sewing, canning and spinning wasn't met with 'You do what now?' but was considered part of what every young woman knew as a matter of course.

Unfortunately,  the world being what it is, and the economy being what IT is, I work a 40-50 hour a week job.  Because we chose to live outside city limits (better school, less taxes, more space, less rules about what we can do on our own land) I have 10ish hours of commute a week. Add in sleep and family/school/sports/etc time.... Well, not a lot of time to focus on my hobbies.

(Except for sports photography.  It says something about how much I do that when other parents ask if I'm showing up at X game for a sport none of my own kids play.  Probably says more that the answer tends towards yes.)

This whole area is now in ground garden.  And overgrown weeds.

ANYWAY.  This is my first year of having an in-ground garden (as opposed to an in-pots garden) since I was a teen living with my parents.  I didn't do much of the hard labor then... also we used an area that had been used as a garden for a few years before we moved to that house, so the soil was pretty much ready to go.  Soil here, not so much.  Actually, three years ago it was a mass of blackberry brambles (the weed of the PNW), at least once it was used as a burn area in the past 20 years, and probably in relation to being a burn pile, attempts to sprout broken bottles and bits of metal on a fairly regular basis.  Also I suspect a previous owner thought a rock garden was a good plan.  Add to that two people who only have a vague idea of what goes into a garden before the seeds.

Last year's garden, all in pots.

Yeah.

Knight rented a rototiller while I was at work and.... kind of failed miserably at actually tilling the soil.  He didn't really have a clear idea what was supposed to happen.  And the dirt did get turned over... just not very much.  So Monster and I ended up going back over about a 15 x 15 foot area with a pickax and shovels.  Hellllloooooo blisters.  But we cleared it enough to plant.  I did a mix of seed starting and starts bought at the big Farmer's Market in town.

My rows....are not very row like.  More clustery.  And they definitely are at an angle.  But they are In. The. Ground.  And we've gotten food off them!  So far I've gotten 5 heads of lettuce (right before we headed to California, where our produce isn't allowed to go), 2 yellow squash, a zucchini, a bunch of shelling peas, 4 tomatoes (Black Prince, heirloom), 5-6 grape tomatoes, a bunch of chilies, random bits of broccoli... I think that's it.  I have more lettuce coming up, acorn and summer squash growing, more peas, more chilies, so many tomatoes I may run out of jars to can them in, and cucumbers showing signs of actually doing something.

Salsa from last year's garden

Lessons learned this year:

1. start seeds earlier.  This is a tough one for me, as it doesn't actually get spring like here until end of June, and indoor cats who think starts are either for eating or peeing.  But I found some hints that I'm going to try next year, namely clear totes apparently make excellent mini greenhouses.

2. borrow a rototiller and make sure we know how to use it.  This is part necessity and part Hitter's coach's wife was horrified we rented a rototiller when they have an herb farm.  I got scolded and told to borrow theirs.  Also she'll come down and help me if I ply her with good coffee.

Plan for the rest of the year is to continue with what we have, then spread compost, lay down a cover crop, rototill all that in before hard frost/snow, whichever we get this year, then compost again and let it all stew until next spring.  I'd like to expand to at least 20x20, although 30x30 is doable if we have actual tilled ground I can work without killing my hands.  I want non GMO corn (if I can still find it, if not, no corn), beans, peas, lettuce, tomatoes, cabbage, zucchini, yellow squash, cucumbers, carrots, radishes, peppers, chilies, onions, pepperchinis, and whatever else catches my eye between now and planting time.  All organic and heirloom.  http://www.rareseeds.com/ is a great website for seeds.

Ok, in between typing I have canned a double batch of strawberry rhubarb jam, strawberry syrup and rhubarb syrup.  Now off to do dishes and mop the floor because sticky.