Last Weekend of March 2010

This weekend the temp is dropping to -18*C overnight. We ran around to all the greenhouses (Unheated) and covered as many of the crops as we could with row covers, tucking them in and wishing them a good night. I instructed them to "cuddle up with their neighbors to keep warm".

There were not enough row covers for all the crops so some of the seedlings are on their own. This will be a true test of their hardiness.

We are growing in 6 Greenhouses so far this year.

Remember to drop by Dufferin Grove Market on Thursday s from 3-7pm to get your greens, sprouts, and early Spring Salad mixes. We will be wildcrafting Stinging Nettle and Chickweed as part of our Spring Detox series.

Thanks to Julia (our Wwoofer) and George for all their help in the recent weeks.

Sandra

Happy Rainy Sunday everyone,
yesterday, in anticipation of the rain we did a huge plant of lettuces and other greens. The last plant date for lettuces was June 17th (10 days ago), a good spacing I think. Using this seeder I seeded 64 rows of lettuces and other types of greens (roughly 25 types) so hopefully the rain will bring them to life and we will have many rows of seedlings in a few days. The Garden you see in the photo above is one of three that were planted with lettuces. The posts and lines are irrigation which will only water a portion of the garden. We'll have to use a different method for the middle rows. Luckily the clouds and rain will do some of the work for us over the next week, as they have been doing so far. This is a good thing for us since our pump is not strong enough to take water all the way to the garden and we are currently exploring other options.

While I was tromping through the dirt, Tamas was building one end-wall of the greenhouse. It looks great and the fan is in. All this side needs now is a door. The cordless saw has been a good friend to the greenhouse this week, removing old rusty nails from the track along the bottom and cutting the large sheets of plywood to fit the shape of the greenhouse. Still lots to do before the plastic goes on.

We secured a much needed "FREE WASHING MACHINE" from our gracious neighbors across the street. This will be perfect for lettuce spinning, all we need before the first harvest is a place to plug it in and access to the well water for washing. The last big step is to move into the house. This is one of the most important steps and the one whose delay is becoming a source of emotional torment as the months pass. We really just want to be in there so that we can work the land from sunrise (ha ha ha) until sunset instead of driving up from our place in the city 7 times a week. Access to a washroom and drinking water would be nice too.

We have some lovely patches of red clover and rows and rows of plantain leaves growing wild. Hopefully the time will allow for some herb drying for teas. Can't wait to see what other wild medicinal herbs we find.

Thank you KINDLY for reading...
Sandra Dombi

The basic skeleton of the greenhouse was completed today. I am very happy with how smoothly things went and how straight it all looks (not bad for the first time). Many, many thanks to Jeff for helping to do the layout and measure the foundation, Frank and Mike for the very grueling work of pounding the steaks into the ground, Amber and Sandra for their help with the finer points of erecting the greenhouse and Eric for his expertise and strength. Also a big thank you to Tom for stopping by with the champagne when it was all said and done.

There's a few more days of work to be done on the greenhouse and I hope to finish it all this week so that I can begin growing sprouts and wheat grass. The garden is starting to show signs of growing. A couple of days ago I planted about 20 varieties of Lettuce for our Salad mixes and today I noticed that many of them are sprouting. Last week we finished transplanting the plants from the small greenhouse to the garden. I forgot about the very important rule of hardening the plants off prior to planting outdoors so most of the plants went into shock. After a few days of stunted growth and a few rows of lost plants there is evidence of new growth and recovery.

Many thanks again to all the volunteers/friends that have come up to help, all this work would not have been done without you!

Lots of Love!

Tamas.

Hi everyone!! Guess what? It is finally time to put UP the GREENHOUSE. We are planning a work party this weekend to get the job done as efficiently as possible. If anyone is interested in helping out please contact us as soon as possible.

In other news, the new tractor has been quite an experience. We had tilled almost 2 of the fields and then the gear shifter plate broke preventing it from going into reverse. Luckily the problem is minor and we found a mechanic willing to fix it for us for a nominal fee. It will take a couple of days to fix and will be returning to full function soon. The Mechanic said that the rest of the Tractor looked to be in great condition, which is a relief. In the meantime a fellow farmer has offered to disk the fields for us so we can get SOME planting done. Once the greenhouse is up, a lot more options will be open to us as far as growing conditions.

The "MOVING IN" part of the farm experience is still on hold as we wait for the previous tenant to move out. This is very frustrating, though not entirely unexpected. The slow start is exasperated by not being able to spend long hours on the property nor being able to store things on there. Luckily the neighbor Mr. Chan has been kind enough to let us use some of his storage facilities to store equipment, pots and the bare bones of the greenhouse. It will be a great relief when the greenhouse is finally up and planting begins for real.

Thanks for reading & stay tuned for more...
Kind Regards,
Sandra Dombi

Hello Everyone,

My apologies for the alignment of the photos, its one of the draw backs of Blogger (or at least my proficiency level with it). I find I have to trick it into aligning things properly, but I don't have half an hour to put into that at the moment.

There's been a lot going on internally and externally since the last time I have written. The greenhouse came down (intentionally) a few weeks ago. Special thanks to Michael, Eric, Jeff, Brian, Harry and Caelian for their help. I've been spending 4-5 days a week on the land trying to get it ready for plowing, tilling and planting. There have been many obstacles these past few weeks: Getting stopped on the highway hauling a trailer that needs work and being detained for a couple of hours while I found a tow truck driver, to pay $20 dollars to, for a missing bolt that he proceeded to take off of his own wheel in order to sell to me, is one. The present tenant in the house refusing to leave and slowing the process down is another. I am finding myself in the middle of a war between the tenant and the landlord in which the bailiff has been called in to physically evict the present tenant, though this might not happen until the middle of July. I have to keep putting my attention on the long term benefit of what we are doing and keep enjoying myself regardless of these external circumstances. I tend to want things to happen quickly and when other people are not involved its easy but in this case there are may circumstances out of my control so cultivating patience is sometimes all I can do (except maybe spiral into a negative state but I choose not to)... The plants in the small greenhouse are beyond ready to plant outdoors! They are outgrowing their containers and the roots are getting pot bound, but the land is not ready to receive them yet. I have been relying on my landlord for the use of his tractor and a neighbor who said he would get the land tilled for me...more than a month later its still not done so yesterday I went out and got a tractor with implements to begin doing it myself, with all the rain we have had it will be at least a few more days before I can begin. I have been patient with the landlord and the tenant but its time to push things along, the season is going by very quickly, its scary really. On the upside, much work has been achieved on the property, its only a few days away from tilling. Tuesday I pick up the tractor and if the ground is dry enough there is an acre I can begin tilling right away. Special thanks to Jamie and Jean-Paul as well for their dedication to helping me a dozen times or so in the somewhat grueling work of clearing the land. The website is far from complete but the backbone of it is done and has a lot of potential. I haven't had the chance to upload content to the website in the past few weeks and to be honest I though that there would be more done by Switch Marketing and less by me but that's how it goes. Anyway here's a few photos of the tractor and the greenhouse being taken down.


Here's some of the things we will be doing this week: moving the greenhouse over to the property and bringing some free shelving for the greenhouse from Loblaws in Toronto. We will be continuing the seemingly never ending task of clearing the land and delivering the tractor and implements. If the weather is dry we may finaly begin some planting.

Thanks for reading & stay tuned for more...
Lots of Love!
Tamas.

Went up to inspect the plastic on the greenhouse today on account of the large wind/storm we had a few days ago. There were a few small holes that we taped up with clear duct tape (yup they have clear now). There wasn't any real damage but the plastic has loosened/stretched significantly and if it continues to stretch, it might tear open. The inflation fan stopped working over a month ago and without it running the plastic is able to blow in the wind. We also noticed that the plastic is buried over a foot under the ground so its going to take a fair bit of work to remove it without damage. We are hoping to salvage the plastic for at least another year of use, the cost per sheet is $400 and 2 are needed. Looking forward to taking this apart and setting it up on the new property.