Cauliflower!

Everyday holds a little bit of excitement during the growing seasons.  I love that I can go outside and look at nature's overnight progress.
Change.
Hope.
Little bits of progress are seen all over the garden at the start of this week.  Peppers and tomatoes are starting to form.  In fact, Patrick has already had to start making tomato supports.  The potatoes are popping out of the ground.  Little sprouts are becoming small plants.  And flowers are blooming.  The air smells amazing at dusk from the wild honeysuckle that surrounds the yard.
Looks like this week we will be in for some cooler temperatures which is always good for working in the gardens.  With last weeks highs reaching into the 80's we could already use a break from the heat.  Hopefully this week brings as much or more rain than last week! 
Sadly I report that the baby mice that we rescued did not make it.  Patrick did such a great job providing round the clock care to the little ones.  But sadly they were just not able to thrive without their mom.  Fortunately we have the Rothe Farm Rats to love on.  And we may have a little chipmunk running around the house that Makita the cat chased in and has yet to find!
We have lots to be thankful for and to look forward to. 

Harvesting the broccoli

Hmmmm. There's nothing like eating fresh vegetables that you have grown yourself. 
The broccoli we planted here at Rothe Farms is ready to harvest.  We got a good crop and the florets are huge!  Did you know that broccoli is actually a whole bunch of potential little flowers?  So if you don't pick your broccoli you will end up with tall stalks of yellow flowers.  Broccolli is best before this process begins.  But no worries if you are late, the broccoli still tastes great!
We now have to decide what to put in where the broccoli is now.  Beans maybe?  I would like to plant more broccoli.  Broccoli can be grown early in the growing season and mid to late season here in WNC.  So, hopefully come july we will be planting more for a late summer harvest.
Everyone should grow something.  Gardening is life affirming.  Gardening nurtures our relationship with earth.  It is also better for the environment to grow and share your food. 
Satisfaction.
Guaranteed.
Gardening may not be for everyone.  But it is for me.

Baby mice rescue update

The baby mice are doing well!  Thanks to Patrick's TLC it looks like the babies will pull through!
Yesterday Patrick brought the babies to work to ensure that they are fed and loved.  Unfortunately today Patrick was sick and stayed home which was to the babies advantage as he was able to give them care.  Last night we set the alarm and got up around 2:30 am to feed and love on the babies.
They are still succling milk from the paint brush but we are happy the are eating.  Hopefully they will be eating from a dropper within a few days.
Of course they are cute as can be.  They have a lot of fight in them and crawl around quickly.  It has been a great experience for both Patrick and myself. 

Pest Away

In an effort to keep things natural we have come up with our own pesticide here at Rothe Farms.  With a little research we have developed our special blend.  Preliminary tests show that our own natural blend helps to keep the pest at bay.  Makita, the Rothe Farms cat broke a large piece off of my beautiful flowering sage plant a few weeks ago.  I made a strong tea from the leaves of the sage.  This is the base of the Pest Away as sage is a natural repellent.  I added castile soap and vegetable oil along with lemongrass, peppermint, lavender and a citrus blend of essential oils.  This is mixed in a bottle and sprayed on all parts of the plant.

Lets hope for continued success!

New Additions to Rothe Farms

Here at Rothe Farms we have a number of pets, 6 of which are fancy rats.  We have been keeping rats for over 3 years and enjoy their companionship.  In March we had our first litter of rats.  Mother had 15 kittens.  We decided we couldn't live without 4 of the babies and the rest went to good homes.

Yesterday I got a phone call from Patrick around lunch time.  He explained that he was at his friend's house for lunch and that he discovered some baby mice.  And since my husband has a heart for, well, he has a heart for a lot of things but he loves to care for baby animals.
So now we are raising 2 baby wild mice.  Their eyes and ears aren't even open yet.  We are trying to nurse them with puppy formula on paint brushes.  They seem to respond to it and have been eating but I wish they would eat more.

Today Patrick took the babies with him to work so he could feed them.  Feeding with dosing syringe was successful, both babies got a good bit!  And since they aren't able to eliminate on their own yet we have been stimulating their tiny butts with wet q-tips and Patrick had success today!  This is good news and a great sign that they babies will survive! 

So, lets see how this works out...

So, I am happy to report that we survived the frost!  From what I can tell not a single plant was lost to frost. 

Plants that are grown for their leaves are subject to bolting.  Bolting is usually sudden.  My first experience with bolting occured last year with my cilantro.  I had started my cilantro inside in February , it was the first thing I had ever grown from seed.  The plant did great and continued to do so after I put it in the ground.  Then one day I noticed the leaves looked different and little white flowers blossomed.  Later I learned that my cilantro had made a change.  It still had the aroma of cilantro just a bit more mild.  The flowers would eventually become seeds commonly know has coriander seeds.  This year my cilantro has already started this process so I am trying to prolong the change.  As soon as I noticed the leaves getting thinner I clipped them.  And of course I harvested a good bit of cilantro to preserve for later use.
Bolting kind of sucks.  Even if you get seeds.  This explains why my parsley suddenly took a turn for the worse.  When bolting occurs a plant focuses all it energy on the production of the seeds or flowers. 
My spinach that carried over from last year in my herb garden has started to bolt, something which I had never seen before.  Its funny just how quick it happens.  I look at my garden everyday, at least twice a day.  I examine and admire each and every plant.  My garden is an extension of myself so I try to care for it as I would for myself.  If only I could do that with my housework.  So, I was surprised to see a flower-like growth shooting out of my mammoth spinach.  I clipped it off right away.  And luckily I have spinach growing in the large garden where it gets a bit of shade.  Most veggies and greens like full sun, but some cool weather crops will do well into summer given a little shade for a part of the day. 
My arugula bolting rather early.  Suddenly it had this huge tall white flowers shooting out.  But that's ok, I don't care much for it, its rather spicy.  I got it only because it is my President's favorite salad green.
I have seen other plants bolt, like basil.  It seems as long as you keep on top of clipping off the flowers as they appear the plant will still produce well, at least for a while.
New additions to the herb garden include yet another rosemary and sweet marjoram.  I bought the rosemary from the French Broad Co-op.  This makes 4 rosemary plants in the garden.  I also transplanted another German chamomile into the herb garden and I am already harvesting the flowers.  The Roman chamomile that returned from last year is multiplying nicely.
The sage that was looking troubled has made a nice comeback after a hard cutting back.
As for the vegetable garden, everything is looking good though I am already wishing we had more rain.  The leeks, green onions, spinach and romaine seeds have sprouted and are looking healthy.  The brussel sprouts are a few inches high and will need to be thinned soon.
Multiple tomato, squash and zucchini plants are popping up throughout the garden which we assume is from the compost.  Should be interesting to see how they turn out.
The broccoli and cauliflower are looking great and will be ready to harvest soon.  We enjoyed our first full head of romaine on Saturday and pulled a few onions and ate them as green onions.
Patrick dug the trenches and planted the potatoes.  He has done an amazing job with the garden.  I'm sure I wouldn't have the garden we do without him. 
It makes us both very happy to grow. 

The before picture. Patrick blazed the 'woods' down early this year.  This is Patrick and Nic when he was a baby pup in September 2009.  Before even the first baby garden...

Fear of Frost

Never before have I feared the frost like I have today.  Currently we have approximately 50 tomato plants of different size and variety planted. The low is forecasted to drop to 36F. This is not good news for tomatoes. They enjoy very warm, moist weather that does not drop below 50F as do most garden fruits.

In preparation for frost we have covered the tomatoes, peppers, melons, cucumbers and squashes. The tender little leek and green onion sprouts were covered as well. I made sure to cover the basil plants and bring in the basil that I had planted in planter boxes as basil is extremely sensitive to cold.

And now we wait. And pray for the crops.

Hopefully this will be the last frost of the season. 

Progress on the Farm

Here on the Farm we have already planted the majority of what will, hopefully, be our late spring and summer crops. 

The first to go in were, of course, the greens. Cabbage, lettuce, spinach, broccoli and cauliflower. Planted in early March, the greens are doing well. We have already enjoyed spinach and romaine salad. 

The broccoli and cauliflower and have good size florets! The early cabbages are developing good solid heads as are the lettuces. We have staggered the cabbage and lettuces in hopes to have multiple harvests.

We also have celery, which I have recently learned is not easy to grow. But we have it, and it is left over from last year! Funny how things survive even in bitter conditions. 

And for the returning crops, the perennials are many...! The parsley never really went away. I enjoyed it's greenery even in the dead of winter. Now it is starting to complete its biennial cycle and beginning to flower then seed. 

The fennel is another that never disappeared. It's fuzzy, feathery leaves poked through the snows in January. Now, my fennel is the largest bush in the herb garden. 

The Spanish lavender was the first of the flowers. I was expecting to have the French lavender return and the Spanish to perish but to my surprise the opposite happened. I expect weeks of flowers from the Spanish lavender. The Munstead, Dutch and English lavenders all survived the winter and are huge and full of bud shooting out of their mounds of silvery green leaves.

The second to flower was my common sage. It never fully died back in the winter and made a beautiful return with bright purple flowers. Currently something seems to be ailing the sage which resulted in a hard cutting back. Today it looked healthy.

Of the 3 rosemary plants from last year 2 have made modest returns. With each day brings new growth and they are both coming around and looking healthy. I planted a new rosemary in early April along with one each of cilantro and basil all of which are essential to Rothe Farms family cooking. 

In addition to the ever expanding oregano plant, which stayed also green through winter, I planted another type of oregano. 'Kent Beauty' is an ornamental oregano with pink 'bracts'.

The Doone Valley and lemon thyme returned nicely. So much so that I planted more. 

The most exciting return of the season has got to be the Stevia. Stevia, or commonly know as the sweet plant is typically only perennial in tropical climates. Needless to say WNC is not tropical and yet about a month ago I saw some little bits of green shooting out of the ground where my Stevia plant was last year. Of course I knew that there was no way that it was the Stevia. I thought perhaps in was pineapple sage but the little leaves didn't have the familiar rich pineapple aroma. So about a week ago I decided to taste them. And sure enough the leaves were sweet! This represents a little miracle which is the beauty of spring.

Intro to bloggery with Kate

So, I have never done this before, blogging.  Bloggery. Is that a word? The red swiggly line indicates that it is not. Whatever. Im not here to talk about that.
I have decided that I am going to do bloggery about my gardening and creating experiences.  Rothe Farms Bloggery.