Hi I’m Erin.
The sun is shining, snow is on the ground and even though it’s only January its time
to start planting and getting ready for the 2019 garden season.
Today we plant the first seeds of the year on Our Wyoming Life.
Somehow the first of year has already come and gone.
The new year for me always bring a sense of new beginnings, resolutions and hopes for
the next 12 months.
Now I’m not much of a new year resolution type person.
But I do always have plans for the gardens.
So maybe my resolutions revolve around growing veggies.
Even before Christmas the first of the seed catalogs started arriving and in the last
few days multiple catalogs are in the mailbox daily.
Every growing season I have success and failure.
A common saying for most growers that I know, is that maybe next year will be better.
Of course, we all have crops that do extremely well but there’s always one or two that
could have been better.
It might have been the weather or germination failure or several things that just didn’t
go your way.
Gardeners, farmers and ranchers are eternally optimistic that the next year will be better.
Audrey Hepburn once said that to plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.
I couldn’t agree more!
Most of what we do on the ranch is part of the long game.
Naturally there are the daily chores of food and water for the animals and the gardens
but without planting the seeds early in the season there’s no need for water.
Without putting the bulls with the cows, there’s no calves in the spring.
My success in the gardens comes because of an abundance of optimism, planning, work and
failure.
See failing at gardening isn’t really failing.
It’s learning what not to do in most cases.
Every year the plan gets tweaked just a little bit.
Seeding dates might change or a new variety of carrot is chosen.
Always with the hope that this year will be better and an improvement upon last year.
Winter growing is a testament of optimism.
This is our second year of growing year-round with no heat and it’s going great.
I’ve already harvested one bed of salanova lettuce, bags full of spinach and an abundance
of radishes.
Now that we are past the shortest day of the year it’s time to get more seeds in the
ground for an early spring harvest and do some maintenance on the crops and beds in
the high tunnel.
Every plant that gets transplanted into the gardens starts the same way.
In our house.
We need more Salanova lettuce for an April and May harvest.
Our plug trays are ready to go.
Seed starting mix is also used for all our transplants.
The soil is dumped into a large tub and a ton of water is added until the soil is damp
but not overly saturated.
The plugs are filled with the damp soil.
Handfuls of dirt are placed into the tray and the soil is worked into the plugs.
Each plug is pressed down to lightly compact the soil then we have room for the seed to
go in.
Salanova lettuce germinates extremely well so one seed is added to each plug.
Today we are planting the Salanova premier collection and the foundation collection.
This will give us 8 different types of lettuce.
Once the seeds are deposited a light layer of dirt is added to the top and the soil is
lightly patted.
Also, being planted today is some cabbage and broccoli seed.
These seeds are extremely tiny, and they don’t germinate as well as the lettuce.
2-3 seeds are added into each plug.
Later on we can trim any extra seedlings that come up leaving us one seedling per plug.
After both trays are finished, they are moved into the basement into our small indoor greenhouses
underneath our daylight fluorescent lights.
The lights will be left on 24 hours per day until germination is complete.
Outside the sun is shining and inside the high tunnels is a beautiful day to work.
Row cover is removed from the crops and piled up on one side of the high tunnel.
The kale has been growing in here for almost a year now and you just can’t get it to
stop.
And yes, half the high tunnel is covered in grass.
I really don’t know where this grass came from and it’s something that will have to
be dealt with later.
Hose is moved out of the way and the water bottles that are used for heat are picked
up from the old bed of Salanova Lettuce that has already been harvested.
During the day the bottles warm up with the sun and cool off slowly at night helping to
keep the lettuce from freezing.
We still have a few radishes in the ground that can be harvested.
We need to make room for a new planting of spinach, so all the remaining radishes are
picked.
I will take them in the house and we will have a radish feast.
We will be replacing the Salanova bed with more Salanova once the newly seeded plants
are ready to come outside in about 4-5 weeks.
For now, though it’s time to clear out the weeds.
The wheel hoe with the stirrup attachment is run over the bed and it does a nice job
of popping everything loose.
The radish bed also gets the wheel hoe run over it.
A landscape rake is a great tool to have in the garden.
It’s big and makes quick work of cleaning off any weeds left over and levels out the
soil.
We have some small salanova lettuce that has been in the high tunnel for a while now.
It hasn’t grown very much but for the most part it’s still alive.
The water bottles are removed and now is as good of time as any to clean out a few weeds.
A stirrup hoe is on my list of essential tools to have in the garden.
I prefer it to a traditional how and it’s faster and easier to use and I believe it’s
more effective than a traditional hoe.
Now that our days are longer these small heads of lettuce should start turning into much
bigger heads of lettuce.
After the hoeing is down the water bottles get added back into the bed.
The old Salanova bed also get a pass with the landscape rake.
There’s still a lot of lettuce root matter left over and grass clumps which just get
tossed to the side.
After everything is raked and hoed the best are ready for their next planting and the
lettuce looks so pretty soaking up the suns rays.
Where the radishes were growing is being replace with spinach.
I’m planning on one more harvest from our existing spinach bed and then that bed will
be replaced with our broccoli and cabbage.
By doing a new planting we will have a consistent supply of spinach for our customers.
The earthway seeder is a relatively inexpensive seeder that in my opinion is worth every penny
that it costs.
It makes seeding extremely fast and won’t break the bank.
It’s a tool I recommend all the time.
I’ve used this seeder for 7 seasons and although I could upgrade to a fancier seeder
this one still works great so I keep using it.
It’s time for water.
A sprinkler is set up and hose is laid out.
Winter watering isn’t the funnest project.
The well that we use in the summertime has above ground lines to the high tunnel, so
it can’t be used in the winter.
Again, a project for another day.
In the winter we water the high tunnels off my mom’s house.
It’s better than hauling water in a tank and this way just the hose must be drug around.
This is a tangled mess but eventually the job gets done.
You might notice that this is a gate I’m pulling the hose under.
It doesn’t open.
That would be too easy.
The mighty Wyoming wind kept blowing the gate open even with it latched and my moms’ dog
would get out.
Mike screwed the fence shut until a wind proof gate latch system could be installed.
Another project for another day.
Eventually I make it over to the faucet and get the hosed hooked up and turned on.
Back to the high tunnel and it’s time to water.
I just open up the shutoff valve in between two hose sections and we’re in business.
The sprinkler will water for about 20 minutes in each spot.
After 20 minutes the dirt is nice and wet and it’s time to move the sprinkler.
The water gets turned off and the sprinkler bucket gets moved.
This will continue until the entire high tunnel is watered.
Then we repeat the process with the hose bringing it back into the high tunnel until the next
time we need it.
The veggies of tomorrow are sown today.
It’s never too late to become a gardener.
This year think about planting a few of your favorite crops.
You don’t need a high tunnel or 15,000 square feet of garden space.
You just need a small plot of dirt or even a few pots on your patio.
There’s no better time than now to plant for the future.
I’ve been spending lots of time going through the seed catalogs and I’m hoping to add
a few new things to the gardens this year.
It’s always fun for me to try new stuff as I tend to get bored growing the same things
every year.
I hope that 2019 is the best growing season I’ve ever had, and I’m going to do the
work and planning now to get us off on the right foot.
I know there will be struggles along the way.
Summer days are long in daylight but short in time it sometimes seems and the to do list
is always too long.
I’m already aching for warmer days and for more plants to be growing in the basement.
We will get there before we know it.
Here’s to your best growing season as well!
Mike has a new video on Sunday and you can also follow us on Instagram and Facebook.
We’ve been posting tons of content everyday that just doesn’t always make it into the
videos.
Until next time I thank you for watching and joining me as we explore the ranch life and
escape the ordinary on Our Wyoming Life.