Tag Archives: Sunflowers

Not a Drop to Drink

Our 3 Acres, ,

Across this country this year, one of the top stories has been about the lack of water. Too little rain and snow and too much need are causing serious issues from the east to west coast and lots of places in between. Here in the Mohawk Valley in NY state we are blessed with lots of water. At times we have a little too much of it as flood warnings and rivers rising are common occurrences after one of our strong storms. As with most things, just because you have something available does not mean one can use it. Or at least easily use it.

We have a good stream on Tiny House Farm. One that we can use to water our plants as long as we don’t get the water actually on the fruit or vegetables. Too much nasty stuff in the water. Most of the stuff is the result of runoff from the local farms. The E-coli numbers are too high to allow us to use it even for soaking our shiitake logs. We know how high the numbers are as we have gotten the water from the main stream and the smaller spring tested on a regular basis. So we can water the plants with the stream water before they produce anything or just the ground around them. The other issue is actually getting the water to our field. We have used several methods of getting water around the farm. Filling big tubs on our wagon resulted in us losing at least half of the collected water before we got to our plants. Once we got the water tank, we filled that but then still had to walk behind the 4 wheeler with pitchers or buckets. Filled those and emptied them on each plant. That was a good way to get all your steps for the day, but it a long process to get each plant watered. Especially as we increased the number of plants we had growing in our 3 acres.

Too many of both the paw paws and juneberries that we planted over the years have sadly, failed to thrive. We planted 40 something paw paws and over half did not survive into the second year. The remaining ones did not grow very well. There are just 4 of them that look as though they might produce fruit in the next year or so. Once these plants had over wintered, we let nature take its course and depended on rain to keep them watered. That was probably a mistake. This year we have ordered more paw paws from Perfect Circle Farm in Barre VT. And another 245 juneberry plants to fill in where we lost ones and finish off the remaining 4 rows. This time we have to water them on a regular basis.

Ron’s new veggie patch and my sunflower garden also need to be watered. That means we need a more permanent and agile way to get water from stream to our field.

Ron’s first attempt was to get more hose and a rolling water canon. Thank goodness we already had the needed water pump to make this work. With this set up he is able to water our lavender and sunflowers. But it cannot reach out far enough to reach our juneberry rows that are beyond the sunflowers. Nor can it reach Ron’s tomatoes and squashes. So another plan was hatched in Ron’s brain. Again he got ideas from You Tube. I really wish I could put a blocking filter on his account. One that would prevent him from watching anything that is going to cost money.

I have to admit that I knew it was coming. Drip tape was going to be the best way to water our assorted patches. Having watched Ron spend hours getting water to his tomatoes and squash plants, I knew the money would be well spent. But I really had no idea how much “stuff” he was going to need, how many trips out to get just one more piece would be needed and how much money it was all going to cost.

So the list of purchases included two water tanks, three, no four water filters, assorted lengths and types of hose, too many connector bits and pieces, another 2 water pumps, and the actual drip tape kit itself. That includes tape, tubing, more connectors, a punch, shut off valves, pressure regulators, staples, end caps and adapters.

Ron set himself up in our living room and began work on the filter system. He had already spent serious time on the internet researching how this should work. Now he just needed to get it set up. I had to be careful during this step. Any time I walked by him, if I paused for 30 seconds too long, he would start explaining the filtering process to me. Again. The idea was to have this attached to side rail of our trailer, where the water tank would sit. He needed to be able to access the filters so they can cleaned when needed. And as this will be set up on our only road worthy trailer, we have to be able to take it all off when we need to. We needed all these filters due to the amount of silt that is in our stream. Even the smallest amount of that getting through would clog up the drip tape.

So this was the end result. You also see part of one more of his purchases, an ICB tote that stores the water we pump from our stream. The whole process does work, but needs serious tweaking. It takes less than 3 minutes to fill our regular water tank from the stream. The one we have been using for years, lost in the great flood of 2017 but was rescued. It takes forever (15-20 minutes) to then pump water through the filter system into the ICB tote. Ron’s goal is to get the water tank filled, connect everything and be able to walk away to get something else done. Right now, he has to waste time waiting for the tank to empty so he can go back and get more water. We have to fill the water tank 3 times in order to fill the ICB tote. Which works out to almost an hour of down time watching to make sure the process of transferring the water going smoothly. And that is before any water actually starts through the drip tape itself.

So once the filter system was set up, it was time to get the drip tape laid down.

One of the first things that had to be done was to “try” to straighten out the tubing. We started out by setting the coil out in the sun to warm and and the Ron and Jo pulled on it. Not a great improvement, but it was a bit straighter. And that did make it easier to work with.

With the tomatoes and squashes growing nicely, Ron and Jo feed the line down each row. The idea behind drip tape is that the water is “dripped” on or just around each plant. This saves water while ensure each plant gets what it needs. So that means that the holes in the tape need to be lined up with where the plant is. This is harder than it sounds. And it does not help that we are dealing with the landscape cloth we used to keep the weeds down. Even though this stuff is water permeable, you still need to get the things lined up correctly.

There were a lot of steps to this project and much fiddling to be done. And a few missteps along the way. We struggled to find a way of getting the connectors into the tubing. No matter what we did, it was not working. Finally we called it a day and headed home. If we fought with it much longer, something rash might happen.

Of course, back at home it with just two minutes on YouTube and Ron had the answer. We were going about it backwards, trying to get the tube over the connector. That was never going to happen as it was not supposed to happen. If we had a better Wi-Fi connection out on Tiny House Farm, we could have gotten the answer there. And if there were actual directions included in the box. Maybe with a couple of diagrams?

Ron does love his Rube Goldberg style fixes. I believe he would be very disappointed with a project that he did not have to come up with a work around on. And he has more work to do on this one. While he has this set up so we can break it all down when we need to use our trailer, that is not very practical. Next year, fingers crossed, we will be vendors again at multiple events in our area. And we will still need to water next year’s crops. So a plan has to be thought up.

When it comes to these type of farm projects, I tend to leave them to Ron and Jo. They have a very good working relationship. Jo listens to the plan, gets clarification when needed and then helps execute it. Me, on the other hand. I listen to his plan, get clarification and then offer suggestions as to another way we could accomplish the same thing. I am sure that all of you know that Ron just loves it when I do this. He welcomes any adjustments to his plan with an open mind. Does not matter if my way would be better or save us some time. Even when I am right, I am still wrong. Cuz this is his plan and that is how we are going to do it. Almost 35 years of marriage and I still cannot help myself. I have to offer my suggestions.

Let the Sunshine In

Ginny Projects

Once our 600 new logs were inoculated and stacked, it was time to begin the rest of our 2021 list of things to do. Ron had been adding to that for at least 6 months. I really do think it is time to cut him off from YouTube. He gets too many ideas from those videos. He watches it all. Narrowboat living, flower and veggie growing, homesteading, sailboat living and whatever else catches his attention. Interestingly the pandemic and its effects on the world were clearly visible on all these shows. People dealt with being unable to travel, lack of supplies, lost customers, lost jobs and so many of them; did what people have always done. Figured out a work around. They made do until they could actually do again. Ron is determined to do what is necessary for Tiny House Farm to be at least a moderate success and he is will to have us try just anything to get there.

This year we are growing some specialty produce. Tomatoes and one squash variety to start with. And flowers of all things. I have three rows of my calendula of course, but we are trying some other, more showy flowers. Sunflowers, which I have always loved, to start with. We took the advice of a few other flower growers (from YouTube of course) and ordered our seeds from GeoSeeds. They have a wide selection of seeds, but a bare bones catalog and no website. Which made placing my order a bit tricky. They only have a scientific name listing so you need to know what you are looking for. And then you need to fill out their order form. My handwriting sucks to be honest so I always try to type when I can. This form was not one of those fillable ones. So I had to download a trial PDF program. And blasted thing was not that easy to use at all. Took me 2 hours to get it all done and emailed it to GeoSeeds. Seven different varieties of sunflowers and assorted other cut flower selections. I am looking forward to this project. I really do like flowers. Have never tried growing them though.

Following all the given advice I started my first batch of the sunflowers inside. Apparently if you plant the seeds straight into the ground, the squirrels and other critters come for dinner. While I do like squirrels, I don’t want them eating my seeds. We had tarped our planned flower rows and that did a great job on getting rid of most of the weeds. There are still remnants of the straw we mistakenly used as mulch on both my calendula and our garlic rows. I fear we will be dealing with that for years to come. It is strange how often we are reminded that one decision made can have such a strong and lasting impact years later. Even in gardening.

My seeds grew well and it soon was time to get them in the ground. Over the years we had learned that planting was best done in the evening if possible. That was so your new seedlings do not have to take on a full day of sun and heat right from the start. So I had to get this planting done after work and of course it was a blistering hot night when Ron and I headed out to Tiny House Farm. Ron came with as he did not want me out there by myself. And he always has projects of his own to putter with. On May 24th, I took my first set of seedlings out with me and got to work. Divided the first row into 8 blocks, one for each of new varieties and the last for the mammoth variety. I really want to try getting those huge sunflowers to grow. The ones that people buy and hang on their doors as a fabulous decoration or set out for the squirrels to enjoy. I had a packet of those seeds from a few years ago, but do you think I could find it when it came to planting time? Of course not. So they would have to wait for my second batch of seedlings.

It was so hot out there. The day’s heat had baked into the ground. I had to get Ron’s umbrella out of the shed in desperate attempt to provide some shade for myself. Foolishly I did not bother to get out the kneeler too. And my knees paid the price later that night. 2.5 hours I worked digging out holes in the bone dry and rock infested soil to planting my seedlings. Watering them was another project. We still have not come up with a plan for getting water from our stream up to our field. In the past we have used our water tank to fill up pitchers and walk up and down the rows watering as we go. That takes some serious time. The first night, Ron filled two of our white 5 gallon buckets with water and hand carried them to my rows. Informing me when he got there that he wasn’t going to do that again. I got the last of the plants into the ground, watered each of them and covered them all with insect cloth. That was in the hope that nothing would saunter by and nibble on my new babies. Do woodchucks eat sunflowers?

We repeated this process the next night but Ron came up with a better idea for the watering process. He went back to the 4 wheeler and bringing our water tank up to the field to fill the water buckets. Work smarter, not harder. But this is still seriously hard work and he is now on a mission to solve our watering situation. I again left the insect cover over the entire row to give the seedlings just that little bit of protection.

While the cloth did help keep my seedlings safe from critters, it was no match for the rain we got. Even though we could see they were growing, our new plants were being held down by the weight of soaking wet cloth. So I made the decision to take it off. That was on June 1st.

There days later and something had themselves a very good meal of my sunflowers. Crushing sadness. And anger. And determination that this was not going to happen again. Problem is that we have too many suspects out on THF. Rabbits, deer, birds, chipmunks, and woodchucks all live out there. While we could never stop all of them, we could make a good start by fencing in the sunflowers. We used the fencing that was previously used on our garlic beds and a few of our T posts. The problem was that our length of fence was shorter than my sunflower bed. So we started at the back end of row where I had the mammoth variety planted. Those had not been touched so either the snacker did not care for them or they were full by the time they made their way that far up the row. I ended up with a row about 3 feet shorter than I started with.

But at least they should be safe from marauders. With our plan being to sell sunflowers to our restaurant customers, we needed to plant more rows of flowers. More work was needed and a larger fence too. I started more seeds at home and then got busy with the massive job of weeding.

Once I had yanked most of the weeds out, I got Jo working to break up the soil for me. And we needed to move the rocks around. They tend to get in the way when planting anything. Ron has plans for us to get out our dirt sifter come fall and tackle those rows; getting most of the larger rocks out of our way. But that is a project and story for another time.

The weekend of June 19th the three of us set out to get the fence up. We had 4 pieces of fencing to use and scrounged up more T posts. Whatever we ended up with, that was going to be our flower garden. Overall, things went smoothly once Ron and I stopped arguing about our plan. As we worked, it dawned on us that we needed a way to get into the bed. Unhooking the fence from post and re-hooking it was going to get old very fast. But luckily we have lots of cinder blocks laying about the farm.

Three stacked outside the fence, and three more inside and we had our way in and out. I have already lost count of the number of times I have used them so far this year. Every time I am at the farm, I have weeding to do. So much weeding. Both in this flower bed and in my calendula rows. I count my blessings though as these particular weeds are pretty easy to ID and yank.

This is what I have been waiting for. Signs of life from the actual flowers. There are a massive amount of leaves on every stem but we chose to grow single stem varieties. So one flower on each stem. Which is why I have been starting more seeds after I plant the seedlings. Succession planting is the way to go. There is so much to learn about growing sunflowers. Not only the variety, but the spacing between plants. Closer together gets you smaller flowers. Which, going against common sense, is better. Smaller more compact blossoms work better in arrangements. Do you use weed cloth or not? YES, use weed cloth. And yes to fencing if you can. But then you have harvesting questions. The goal is to have the flowers fully open just when customer needs them. So you cut them ahead of time and let them sit in water. But timing is a bit tricky and another learned process. We will know better next year. Because, yes we are growing sunflowers again next year. I am already working on our 2022 order. Even though we have not yet sold a single flower. Which is the biggest issue we have. How do you decide what to charge for your product? The large grocery store prices are a starting point, but really, they can afford to sell for less than $1 a flower only because they buy in such massive quantities. And bring them in from Colombia and Ecuador. And they are not selling the more specialized varieties we are. So we have to decide how much to charge. Enough to make a profit for THF while keeping the price low enough for customer’s to agree to pay it. A delicate balancing game. One that all small business owners have to play. One that is not fun at all.

I started and planted more and more sunflower seedlings over the weeks. And it turns out that planting in well watered soil is much easier. So next year, I will make sure my planting beds are thoroughly watered before I get started. I used our garlic dibbler to make the holes and it worked a treat. And it turns out doing extreme weeding is also very good at preparing your planting bed too. As I toiled in the hot sun and yanked out the weeds, that was loosening up the soil. Which then made it easier for me to plant our sunflowers. I won’t have to deal with weeds as much next year as we are going to use weed cloth with burned in holes. That will be a huge project but will mean less work for me in the long run. Another upcoming project and story.

This was my goal for the year. Bright and happy sunflowers growing in our field. It is still early in our season and I will have better photos later. Next year I will have a different planting schedule and layout. Before this fall we will make the final decision on which type of flowers and how many of each we will grow and I will get them started sooner in 2022. Everything is a learning process and this will be no exception. THF keeps us busy, gets us out of the house, meeting new people, learning all the time and gives us lots of exercise. All in all, not a bad thing.