Garlic, Flowers, Paw Paw, and Some Time Travel

2020-10-20 14_12_00-Video - Google Photos - Vivaldi.png

FIXED! RotoTiller!

I planted a lot of Garlic. Since the ol’ Roto-Hoe is now running like a champ. I created a large garlic bed. About 8ft x 45ft. There are 6 varieties = 6 rows, 4-6 inch spacing… Should be enough to replant something gigantic next year.

Current Varieties:

  1. Grandpa’s Garlic (this has been growing without interruption most of my life in the yard back home. Mom dug a bunch up and sent it)

  2. German Extra Hardy

  3. Red Russian

  4. California White (Came from the natural grocery store. That’s what i’m calling it for now)

  5. Elephant Garlic

  6. Sam’s Club White (Came from the Sam’s Club, So that’s what i’m calling it for now)

Flower Farm planting continues… I can’t begin to list all the flowers going it (mostly cause I don’t know either), so here are some pictures!

Next, Paw Paw seed arrived! (wikipedia link) LOTS OF IT! I ordered 10 lbs from Nash Nurseries in Michican. They have a giant Paw Paw tree selection. Since I’m right on the edge of temperature zone here for them, I want to grow stronger trees from seed because they don’t transplant the greatest. That led me to order a ton of seed. All of it comes from their really good paw paw cultivars, but its not sorted. It’ll be a grab bag of new cultivars since they do not grow “true to type” (just like apples). I’ll get paw paws, but not a copy. Similarly if you plant a seed from a red delicious apple in the store, you wont get a red delicious seedling. It’ll still be an apple, just more of a grab bag.

Now to finish off with our Time Travel segment of the day. I discovered some OLD aerial photography of the area. Large areas of this part of Maine were photographed for some reason here and there over the century. This particular photo I cropped down and aligned it with a modern Google Earth. This is October 13th 1957 compared to May 10th 2018. Apparently there were a lot more open fields that are now forested over.

October Updates!

Summer is done. Winter is right around the corner. And a lot of things happened in between that I haven’t been diligent about posting.

  1. Backhoe is enjoying its new life out on the farm. It’s enjoyed digging, and driving around through the woods. It is just small enough to be able to sneak down the large trails that currently exist, and will be a key contributor to creating new trails in the future.

2. I had visitors! It was great to have Dad and Auntie Jo around for a few days in the midst of the crazy world.

3. Jonathan & Robin’s flower farm officially has flowers in the ground. It has been located in the field immediately in front of the cemetery. It should be a great location and testing ground for their flower farming hopes/dreams/desires. The plant-a-thon began in August, but still hasn’t quite finished. There are more and more bulbs on the way, but there are a handful of pictures to add to the narrative. The space needed to be occupied by something good looking and relatively short so as to not block views and access to the cemetery. The flower farm is the perfect fit. No official name yet for their flower farming adventure… (that I know of).

4. The understory of a huge area along side the field has been thinned by me with loppers and alot of work. This is going to be the new home of the Paw Paw grove. Way too many seeds will arrive shortly, followed by way to much planting of those seeds. Paw Paw trees NEED full sun to part shade at worst for the beginning decade (or all) of life. So this should work well. They also have a fairly delicate tap root and don’t transplant too well. Since Maine is really on the limit for their range (USDA zone 5 here), I figured it would be best to give them their best possible chance by directly planting seeds. This picture is before I began chopping brush.

5. The bulldozer had some fun in the woods clearing some areas, but I forgot to take pictures of anything. Here is a nice picture along the way of it sitting next to its slumbering future friend… That other one was a “free bulldozer” I got in December. It has no engine, so it’s not going any where anytime soon. It had a Chevy big block that some Nascar guy put into it, but it caught on fire… hence the no engine part. That led to the guy passing the rest of the machine on to me for “free”. Still had to move it.

6. Seed collecting is underway. Mom is sending seed, I’m hunting seeds in the woods, I’m hunting seeds at apple orchards, I’m hunting seeds in the grocery store… Favorite one I’ve got high hope for are Cold Hardy Kiwi. They are kind of a rare one and I managed to get a ton at Sam’s club. They are about the size of a giant grape, but have a million little seeds. Extracting seeds was a little tedious!

6. Tractor driving lessons! Robin learned to drive. Its good to have a few people knowing how to operate everything.

More planting soon!

Comment

New (again) Shipping Container, New Signs, a Backhoe, a Field Trip, and a Rainbow

There are all kinds of excitement happening. In the recent past I posted on getting a shipping container for instant storage garage. That container was a “used” container and after close inspection was found to be leaking in the roof. SOooo, that resulted in trading that one back in and getting an upgraded “new” shipping container. A “new” container has only made one trip across the ocean, but it is basically in new shape (minus the scratch here and there from where the cranes grab them).

Then I had my friend Jonathan’s help to install a new sign on the driveway/road coming in. It’s cemented 4ft in the ground… good luck anyone ever getting it out without a backhoe.

Which leads to the next adventure! A backhoe was found for sale for a steal, so it was acquired. This one Jonathan bought for our use around the property and his eventual use on his dream peony farm, which is also going to start here this fall. Yes, that means there will be pictures someday of an insane amount of peonies. We visited one a few hrs away in Maine and it was quite interesting to see and learn how they farm them.

The peony farm also grows garlic. It is amazing to see that much garlic growing at once. They say it is a great crop for them that they just started recently and basically they can’t grow enough of it and its bought up instantly. On the note of growing, the Chestnut trees are all starting to grow new leaves and branches. Even the ones I thought died. It is amazing how well they have done!

Comment

Successful Delivery

My new “instant garage” aka shipping container was delivered. 40ft long, 9.5ft tall, 8ft wide. Fast and easy setup. These guys deliver these fairly regularly up here so the driver knew all the tricks to set them perfect. The key is to have 6 cement blocks and placing the middle ones exactly in the center of the container. This allows for you to teeter-totter the entire container by hand and level it out very easily with no (or minimal) use of bottle jacks. It will be great for securely storing tools, things, and stuff while I build, and then it will be great for storage in the future.