While we are watching a thunderstorm track to our west, it doesn’t have near the power of the storms of the past two days.  In fact, it doesn’t look like we will get any rain from it.  YAY!

This morning Grandma, Aaron and I went out into the muddy garden and laid down the plastic mulch for the beds.  This mulch is the type used by most organic producers.  It keeps the weeds down and retains moisture.  Out here, as we have seen with the storm and wind, it is essential to keep this sandy loam soil covered.  If we don’t, it will simply blow away.  To succeed in gardening out here, the biggest task will be to try to keep the soil covered with either mulch or by planting cover crops.  We aim to do both.  After the growing season is over we will be laying down straw and then anchoring it in place with rolls of burlap.

We are holding the mulch in place with sandbags.  We have some landscaping staples to hold them down as well but it is pretty apparent that they will be practically use-less.  The weight and movability of the sandbags will give us the flexibility to move them around depending on where we cut the holes for the plants themselves.

The drippers for the corn patch arrived today so yet another project is waiting in the wings.  I switched the tiller off of the tractor and put on the middle buster to plow the trenches for the potatoes.  If it stays dry we will be planting 3 50 foot rows of potatoes tomorrow.  If we still have any energy left after that then we are going to figure out our seeding tool and plant 4 rows of beans as well.

So despite this violent weather, planting is starting to get underway.  I have to admit I am rather nervous about this all.  It is a big task and this weather has, understandably, left me full of self-doubt.  Self – doubt makes me anxious.  Everything else that has been built in the past year has gone great.  Now we are to the reason why we started all of this and the new variables of growing out on the plains has made this such a challenge.  It is going to be quite an adventure this summer to see if any of this actually works.  If it doesn’t, well, the JAZ Farm will evolve.

It snowed on Friday, it was sloppy and muddy on Saturday, and today, even though there was one less hour, it was 70+ degrees and sunny!  The tractor got fired up and the final push to form the raised beds and get the drippers plumbed has begun!

So up until this point, the JAZ Farm blog has pretty much been a coverage of the construction of the farm’s infrastructure and dwelling.  The chickens took center stage and we are happy to say that they are doing awesomely well and are providing us, the neighbors, clients and co-workers with tasty fresh eggs!

Now it is on to the gardening phase.  While it is still winter and I should be out forming the beds for the organic vegetables, this whole winter vortex, broken Jet Stream, thing has kept us inside.  As we speak, Zina is painting the guest bath… so the construction work continues.

However!  The grow room in the basement is being put to maximum use.  In the past couple of weeks I have planted thousands (no exaggeration) of seeds.  I am actually to the end of useable, lighted, grow table space.  All of the seeds for both the farm and the urban farm are planted (of course, I just got an email from Johnny’s Seeds that my red onion seed order just shipped).  Everything else that will be planted this year is able to be directly sowed outside.  Knowing how crowded the city grow room gets every year, this is going to be quite the jungle of plants once they get to potting size.

We are also now getting enough lettuce to have salad at every meal grown in the basement hydroponically.  Given how hard Colorado’s climate is on greens, we may be doing that permanently and growing tougher greens like Kale outside.

We have figured out how to put up some wind breaks between the bed rows.  It should help in keeping the plants from getting too dried out.  Of course it means another fencing project, but its all for the cause.  The new JAZ Farm motto:  Plant ‘Til We Can’t.   Gotta live up to it.

Here is the grow room.  The Onions and a bunch of the tomatoes, and the Kale are all coming up.  I wish someone would give me the magic answer for germinating spinach seeds.  They hate me.

2 weeks and the lettuce in the grow tables have made the farm house green!  From sprouted seed to edible is about a month.  Am going to have to plant more to fill in behind the salad harvest!  Yay!

I also have Basil, Cilantro, Parsley and Spinach that are coming along and need to get into the big cubes and into a grow table.  Growing is fun!  Even if it is below zero here!

We got most of the city garden put to bed this past week.  Still some to do but most of it is done.  While pulling up all of the tomato vines we discovered that we had about half a bushel of tomatoes yet to pick!  Woohoo!  I got to try out my birthday present!  Zina bought me a jehnyouwine Eyetalian Eeeelectric tomato masher!  No more having to grind them for sauce all by hand!!  Electric motors and spinning things are wonderful inventions!  Just in the city we harvest at least 250 lbs of tomatoes a year.  All of the tomatoes that we don’t just freeze or can whole have to be run through a food mill so that the skin and seeds are removed.  This can take hours by hand, and necessitate serious neck and shoulder massages!  This beastie went through a half bushel of tomatoes inside 15 minutes.  I figure that if Aaron is going to be the engineer and not the farm hand, and Zina is at work and a part time farm hand, I need at least some gizmos to keep me from passing out!  This was just the ticket.  The sauce is on the stove cooking down and the whole house smells great!