How Hardy Are We?

Posted on 02/01/2012 by Melissa

We’re pretty hardy people.

In the winter we ~~keep~~ kept our thermostat between 57-63. (Actually, before we lived together, Mark set his apartment thermostat to 52.) We ~~enjoy~~ enjoyed cold weather activities like snowshoeing (me), snowboarding (Mark) and shoveling snow (well, I enjoy shoveling snow; I’m not sure Mark actually enjoys it, though he did a lot of it last year). Friends and family outside of Vermont think we’re a little crazy to keep our heat so low and to embrace the winter as a pleasurable experience, but believe me, it’s not crazy where we ~~are~~ were.

If we’re so hardy, why did we leave Vermont?

Because it’s all about the plants. The plants we want to grow are not quite as hardy. For instance, one year I tried to grow artichokes. Major fail. They grew into beautiful healthy plants, but never produced the bud/choke/edible part. Previous years of tomato plantings were such failures that last year Mark gave up trying to grow full sized tomatoes and grew only cherries instead. I don’t think I’ve ever seen heat-loving peppers grow in Vermont. Okay, I’m kidding with that last one. Sort-of.

When grown in the right climate, artichoke plants are pretty cool looking, and delicious

The truth is, the short growing season in Vermont certainly presents some challenges in terms of the crops and varieties available. Don’t get me wrong, many fruits and vegetables can be grown in Vermont, and the state has plenty of successful farmers, like our friends at the Intervale for instance, other farms surrounding Burlington, or elsewhere in the state. I give them a lot of credit. Vermont presents many challenges to farmers. You have to select cold-tolerant plants, extend the growing season with hoop houses and other techniques, and trudge out in the snow to take care of farm chores and animals in the winter. The short season also makes it difficult to recover when storms like Irene come through and ravage farms during the peak growing season.

While the challenges of farming in Vermont are not insurmountable, we did realize we’re not as hardy as we thought. When we began looking at land to suit our small farm/homestead dreams, we realized that we could have a big advantage over the growing season if we took our dream a little further south. How far south? Oh, about two zones.

When I think about farming in Vermont here’s the image that comes to mind for me:

You’ll notice lots of blues and some purple in that map – colors that generally indicate brrrrrr. In terms of these USDA Plant Hardiness Zones, Burlington is typically a 5a. Not horrible, but not ideal for those of us who want to grow a large variety of heat-loving plants.

Take a look at the zones where we plan to farm this season, near Charlottesville, Virginia:

In amongst all those beautiful earthy green colors you’ll find Charlottesville: squarely in Zone 7a – two full zones warmer than Burlington!

What does this mean? It means it’s snowing in Vermont right now as we’re headed out for a bike ride in Virginia. It means Mark can grow his beloved tomatoes to full ripeness – and sweetness – without worrying that a frost in May or September will thwart his efforts. It means harvesting fresh greens throughout the winter. It means we’ll be planting in the ground in Virginia in a few weeks, just as greenhouses in Vermont are starting to wake up from hibernation. It means more outdoor farmers’ markets throughout the year. It means, overall, more fresh local food more of the time.

Now, don’t take this as a value judgement. I’m not saying Virginia is better than Vermont, even from a local food or farming perspective. Vermont still has advantages like the most farmers markets per capita of any state. And many more local cheese producers. (Boy do they love their cheese in the Green Mountain State!) And tons of helpful resources for new farmers that come from the University of Vermont’s Ag Extension. And Virginia will definitely have its challenges I’m sure – like more pests and diseases due to the lack of a hard frost to kill ’em off each year.

I’m still sad to have left Vermont. I’ll admit that I haven’t yet fallen in love with my new state. But I am excited about the possibilities for growing new things in a warmer zone. I mean, how could I not be excited about growing our own tea (camellia sinensis), or peanuts, or peaches? The possibilities seem endless right now as we start placing our seed orders. Don’t worry, we’re ordering plenty of artichokes and tomatoes. Oh yes.

The little things

Posted on 07/18/2011 by Melissa

I always love it when little things make a huge impact.

Like a flower blossom. In the garden this evening, Mark was thrilled to find that his precious tomato plants have been enjoying all the recent heat and humidity. Tomatoes are growing on the vine and more are on the way. “I love these little yellow blossoms. It’s like the stars coming out at night,” he said. Garden-inspired prose abounds these days.

‘Just living is not enough,’ said the butterfly. ‘One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.’ ~Hans Christian Andersen

Like a rainstorm. The spring floods have come and gone and now we’re in the heat of summer, where a rainstorm every few days is welcomed with open arms. A rainshower means, at the very least, that we don’t have to water the garden for the next 12-24 hours. At best, it means plants have the water they need to stay cool, keep growing, or bear fruit, and our rain barrel is full for tomorrow’s watering chores. Everyone is happy.

Many a man curses the rain that falls upon his head, and knows not that it brings abundance to drive away the hunger. ~Saint Basil

Like security. Two packages of metal hook-and-eye latches cost about $5, yet their value is priceless. Quickly installed on the chicken coop one night after dark, the latches save time opening and closing gates to the pen, and opening the egg hatch to gather the magical pink orbs, of which we get three to four a day. Prior to latches, we were opening the egg hatch with our cordless drill. (Yes, we’re silly.) The latches also skilled in the art of peace-of-mind. I have been having regular nightmares about the chickens escaping or dying an ungodly death at night because our fencing is questionably adequate to keep out suburban critters (think: raccoons, skunks, squirrels -who typically won’t harm chickens but may try to eat chicken feed- and neighborhood dogs). In fact, one night I went out to check that the hens had enough water for the morning and I found a very confused skunk inside the pen! Heart racing, I slowly and carefully joined him in the pen to move the fences so he could get out. I did not get sprayed, no eggs were stolen, the hens were safely upstairs in the coop, but I was resolute on fixing our fencing. Cross your fingers I’m not jinxing the situation by mentioning it, but I think the chickens are now more secure thanks to a few inches of metal!

The average ~~man~~ [chicken] does not want to be free. [S]he simply wants to be safe. ~H.L. Mencken

Like kisses. Enough said.

‘Twas not my lips you kissed, But my soul ~Judy Garland

May Day

Posted on 05/01/2011 by Melissa

We woke up early this morning, full of energy and ideas for a productive day at home after being out of town yesterday. It’s May Day, and, while we did not attend any labor protests like the 1886 Haymarket Affair to fight for an 8-hour workday (the event for which May Day is most remembered), I had visions of installing a Maypole in our backyard and dancing around it to promote soil fertility (the other recognized reason for today’s holiday).

Alas, our Maypole was in the shop, and our soil is already nice and fertile, so we ditched that idea and moved on to some of the other bright ideas we always have up our sleeves. Sleeves that happen to be short these days. As in, it’s finally t-shirt weather! We spent the bright and sunny day outside, sans Maypole, enjoying the heat almost as much as our baby seedlings.

The orange tubes you see in the photo hold up the plastic liner that we use to create a small-scale hoop house. It protects our babies from the harsh rainstorms and massively fluctuating temperatures.

Our tomato seedlings especially have taken a liking to their new hot house, as evidenced by their recent growth spurt, shooting up several inches over the past few days. But, like needy children, tomatoes and other heat-loving plants require the extra effort of carrying them out to the hoop house in the mornings and inside in the evenings as temperatures have been dropping to almost freezing. This process makes me realize several things: 1) Mark and I spend a lot of our time catering to the needs of our seedling babies. 2) Like real babies, we wish we had better control over their environment to help them grow up healthy and happy. 3) While I don’t like my tomatoes (or any fresh food) wrapped in plastic packaging before eating it, I think I can live with them being encased in plastic at this stage of their lives.

In addition to the necessary ferrying of plants to and fro, our weekend included the following list of activities, in rough chronological order:

Picked up our order of local native plants from the WNRCD plant sale.
Bought my first pair of real Carhartts.
Started a new poll: Is it cute or nauseating when Mark and I wear matching carpenter pants?
Road trip: Learned that finding affordable land in Vermont will be harder than we imagined.
Attended the first beer festival we’ve ever been to where we didn’t drink a sip. (Sierra Nevada on tap for more than 1/2 hour – is that the best you can offer?).
Picked up 5 buckets of coffee grounds from a local coffee shop to add to our soil.
Started building the railings for the back deck and laying out where the planter boxes will go.
Borrowed a friend’s pickup truck, drove to our favorite local farmer, picked up lots of landscaping rocks and manure. Unloaded and returned truck with a few homebrews as a thank you gift.
Used the landscaping rocks to construct a pathway to the front porch, where there had been gravel. Huge improvement!
Spread more coffee grounds and manure on front yard where grass was growing resiliently.
Took a quick run to the local hardware store, Ace. Came back with a few purchases for the grill project and free popcorn for my favorite guys.
What grill project? Built a grill out of a 55 gallon steel drum with the help of a friend.
Did laundry. I continue to be amazed by how much can fit in our front-loader washing machine. It looks small from the outside, but inside there’s another universe.
Made the best loaf of no-knead bread ever.
Reorganized entire garage, swept, and cleared the ping pong table.
Put up decorative outdoor LED lights on our new pergola.
Reorganized and cleaned up all the stuff in our backyard in preparation for a party tomorrow.
Thanked the rain gods for giving us two beautiful sunny days in a row. Hooked up our rain barrel in preparation for the next downpour. Despite major flooding in parts of Vermont, and Lake Champlain at a record high level, there’s more rain predicted.
Played ping pong in a newly-cleaned garage.
Passed out, exhausted.

That last one hasn’t happened yet, but it’s about to in just a minute. So forgive me if I end this post here and follow up in more detail, and more photos, about most of the above some other time.

For now, here’s a cool super-vivid photo of our backyard, framed by the new pergola, as a rainstorm was receding a few days ago.