Early Retirement Extreme Forums

From the preface to "Play and Profit in My Garden", Rev. E.P. Roe, 1873

I know that I shall be met at the outset by that inevitable Yankee question, "Does a garden pay?"

I might answer indignantly, does it pay to kiss your wife, to dandle your baby, or to go back to the past, to look at the choir, or do anything else agreeable to human nature?

Is the gain in health, strength, and happiness, which this Eden form of recreation secures, to be gauged by the dollar symbol?

If this forum ever forms a softball team, maybe we should call ourselves the Inevitable Yankees.

My fig survived the winter without protection. Thunderstorms in February. I am in quite the muddle, literally and figuratively, trying to figure out what to do about spring planting. "As soon as the ground can be worked"...has always struck me as overly vague instruction, since I would likely be creating something more like an impenetrable clay-lined coffin than a fluffy bed, if I were to set shovel to soil at this juncture in my region.

The 20+ elk herd came & partied Monday night or Tuesday morning. Didn't even know they were there, despite them being right at the back door & patio!

One went up and raided the compost pile. Kale and carrots were the favorites. And it left free fertilizer right in front of the garden gate, which is how I discovered we'd been visited...

7Wannabe5 wrote: My fig survived the winter without protection. Thunderstorms in February. I am in quite the muddle, literally and figuratively, trying to figure out what to do about spring planting. "As soon as the ground can be worked"...has always struck me as overly vague instruction, since I would likely be creating something more like an impenetrable clay-lined coffin than a fluffy bed, if I were to set shovel to soil at this juncture in my region.

Totally agree about the spring planting confusion. Aside from estimating when the ground can be worked, it's all about the crystal ball. Even if you magically create a fluffy bed instead of a clay-lined coffin, the ensuing weather can either smack you upside the head for excessive optimism or laugh maniacally at your hesitation.

Snow has repeatedly fallen here in the past few weeks and, if it wasn't snow, then we had very cold rain which hampered seed germination. Fortunately the peas and spinach I planted back on Feb 14 have finally sprouted! The green onion starts, in the house, are getting leggy, so I've pushed the smallest pot outdoors to see if it does better there.

Planted the first batch of radishes today and I also started another pot of potatoes, a pair gold yukons this time instead of the early red norland.

On the way into Seaside this morning, saw a herd of 10+ elk and then a few more miles down the road there was a herd of 32 elk. That may be the first time I've seen two herds in one day.

Don't worry George, I finally got my new cross country ski boots so we're probably done with snow for the winter. Rain? I wish.

Progress in pictures...

Potatoes after 1 month, on & off in the garage to keep from freezing:


Peas after 1 month, mostly spent being too cold before finally sprouting:


Onion plants after 2.5 weeks, they haven't really changed:


And one of the pots of green onions started indoors about 3 weeks ago:

St. Patrick's Day has arrived, so planted 4 potatoes outdoors as a token. They're buried a little deeper than normal and the mounds have a dusting of black compost to help absorb heat.

Normal outdoor potato planting season is still a month away. Potatoes in pots are safely in the garage since we had frost yesterday morning and a threat this morning (33F).

Radishes have sprouted.

Initial peas are 4" tall now and look to be doing fine, so I planted the main crop of "Oregon Giant" in a 30' row today. The potatoes in pots are doing fine even though they had a close encounter with frost last Friday morning. It's been WET this spring, so not too much else going on and I won't be planting anything else until next week at the rate the rain keeps coming at us.

During the last dry break, I finished clearing up the brushpile behind the greenhouse, removed rocks, hauled compost there, and got most of it dug in despite keeping the company entertained during their 3 day visit. Naturally I couldn't produce the 8-10 late native steelhead that spawned during the visit and the elk didn't come by until this morning, a day after the company left.

Does anyone know what this is? My yard is full of it this week and I've never seen it before.



Sorry about my dog's nose. He was curious, too.

Maybe purple dead nettle? Weird name.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/109212359684568801/

We have that here in Oregon. Mildly annoying weed, can easily be ripped out. I'll grab my weed book and look it up...

Confirmed purple deadnettle. Wikipedia:
"Outside of its native range, it is a common weed of cultivated areas; it is listed as an invasive species in some parts of North America.
Young plants have edible tops and leaves, used in salads or in stirfry as a spring vegetable. If finely chopped it can also be used in sauces.
Undyed, the pollen itself is a red colour and is very noticeable on the heads of bees that frequent it's flowers."

See also: http://www.invasiveplantatlas.org/subject.html?sub=3408

Did you eat some?

invasive indeed ...

Began planting potatoes in earnest today, though it is going slowly for a variety of reasons (weather, weather, weather) and only got 24 in the ground today.

If you've planted potatoes before, then you know what a chitted potato looks like. If you've stored potatoes in the garage over the winter, then you probably have an impression of what a well-chitted potato looks like. And then if you've had extra-early potatoes sprout beginning in January and have to wait until April to begin planting... well, I've got 6" sprouts on mine and, despite being in a box under a dark covering cloth, they've begun rooting into each other!

Finished up the potato planting today. Total: 50 row feet of early reds and 60 row feet of gold yukons. We still have 2 boxes of gold yukons that are edible, probably for another month and I suspect there's a box of the reds floating around somewhere that I haven't looked at...

Going back outside to plant a few lettuce, carrots, green onions, etc.

Last year I covered all my 10 beds with leaves and used some branches and annuals to hold them down. I'm currently prepping them again since last frost day is fast appearing.

It appears that since then, earth worms have gone through the leaves and turned my otherwise clayey(SP?) soil into something better which is actually digable with a shovel rather than a pick axe. Also, grass and weeds didn't take over unlike the previous year where I just let everything sit and grow over.

So overall, the time investment was worth it.

Arugula, mesclun mix, radishes, snap peas, snow peas, borage, parsnips, garlic chives, black-seeded Simpson, beets. All in and almost all sprouting. Daffodils up and fruit trees blooming. Scored two free 250 gallons water tanks with metal cages, and found some weed cloth for 3 cents/ft2 to aid in my not very permaculture-like war against the grass. I came to the realization that the refrigerator in my garden-camper will run on gas, so I might still have cold soda after the apocalypse.

Jealous of your water tanks!

Second planting of peas have sprouted after 11 days and I was gifted with raspberry starts by a cousin.