The planning and preparing of our first garden at Quail Run is something I have enjoyed and anticipated very much.  I decided to use an area that had previously been pasture, it was already fenced and cleared of sage brush, making our work a little easier, all it needed was a plowing.

Dadzoo, tilling the virgin pasture

It is a good size area too, maybe about an eighth of an acre, perfect for a good size kitchen garden.  I am planning on using a cover crop for about a forth of the space, rotating and using the cover crop as a green manure to keep the fertility high, in an attempt to keep the garden “organic”.

Boo planting the cabbage patch

Little baby cabbage, of the green variety

Little baby cabbage of the purple variety

Beets

Little bitty carotts, just coming up

Early in the season we planted a few early vegetables, ones that can handle freezing temperatures: cabbage, beets, carrots and onions.  They have been slow to come up, spring has been rather cold and dry making things a bit sluggish.

Onion hoop house

With the amount of critters we have running around the place, specifically quail, we covered the garden beds with a light row cover, to keep the birds from eating my seeds, and the jack rabbits from eating the new little seedlings.

Cabbage, carrots and beets all tucked in and ready to germinate

Over the onions I made a little hoop house, in the past I have learned (the hard way) that onion seedlings don’t like anything laying on top of them, they die when that happens.

For everything else I just lay the cover on top.

This weekend we will started planting the warm season vegetables, as the threat of frost has past.  I am so excited to plant and harvest and preserve enough to last a year, this  something I have been dreaming about for years!

Remember our little tomatoes?

After about three weeks they looked like this:Beautiful, big and green, and growing out of their space.

Tomato plants tend to get long and lankly very easily, which makes them a tad delicate once they have to deal with wind and such.  There is a simple trick when dealing with long tomatoes that will help with the delicate stems.  It is so easy I am almost embarrassed to share!

Ready?

Bury the stem.  I know, profound, yet so simple.  That long lanky stem can be buried almost up to the first true leaves, and that stem will make roots which gives you a stronger plant.

Simple, yet beautiful in its simplicity.