Mars Farm Expands

The weather has been fantastic for the past week or so -- high 60's/low 70's, bright & sunny.

The bad news is that it made all the arugula bolt while I was on the east coast for a visit last week:

This is about a pound's worth. Maybe two.

The good news is that we now can make lots of arugula pesto! The other good news is that I now have lots of room to plant the swiss chard seeds my dad sent after I got back to Mars!

Saturday & Sunday this weekend were dedicated to gardening. Here's the garden, at about 8am Saturday morning:

The fava plants are about 4 feet tall, & have just started blooming:

I noticed today that the first planting of snap peas has just produced a few blossoms, as well!

Anyway, this weekend, I planted the swiss chard, and more spinach, beets, & carrots, but I spent most of my time weeding & cutting back some of the more ornamental plants edging the garden -- pretty, but starting to choke the vegetables. I also cleared out all kinds of grass & clover & stuff around the yellow roses & the herb garden I planted last year:

Dog guarding some more swiss chard, planted in planters picked up from the neighbor's "free" pile before they went off to travel in Bali for a year (!).

If anyone can identify that 3' tall bluish spikey plant on the left, please let us know. It just started growing there a couple months ago. We have no idea what it is.

Last year's herb garden:

Cala lillies that the previous owner had put in, towards the top of the picture; her borage (the purple flowers) & mint, on the right; our summer savory, sage, & thyme.

Meanwhile, it's finally time to put the pumpkins in! I cleared out the front yard of weeds & moved things around to make room a couple weeks ago:

The pumpkins belong in the far corner, next to the hydrangea, where the house & front stoop meet.

Sunday, I made a big old pumpkin hill, plus planted a ton of new radishes:

It's hard to make wet dirt look interesting, but there it is.

I also planted more swiss chard next to that spikey plant in the front.

So another week full of excitement, waiting for sprouts to poke through. Meanwhile, it's time to start harvesting leaves off the spinach & collards. Adrienne is going to make spinach risotto this week. I'll be sure to post a photo.

First Radish! Warm Weather!

This week, we celebrated two important Mars events.

We pulled up the first of the radishes:

And we got a few days of sunny, 70-degree weather after a week of rain. Some of us were particularly excited:

Exhausted Dog

Just got in from a long walk. Zoey jumped up on the couch & nested in the blankets. The wind had made her a little nervous, so I put a blanket on top of her to help her relax. Here she is, about a minute later:

A Very Important Weekend

Today is the one year anniversary of Zoey's coming to live with us!

Mama & Papa O'Brien sent some fun gifts to help us celebrate. Here is Zoey playing with a particularly satisfying panda on Friday night:

After a late night of fun with Amanda on Saturday, & an afternoon in the sun with Susie in the backyard on Sunday, she finished the weekend with a long & very serious nap:

She seems happy to be living here, & we're certainly happy to have her here on Mars!

Mars Farm Update: Starting to Eat Things! Plus A Vicious Attack!

This weekend on Mars Farm, we got our first taste of what's been growing -- it was time to thin the arugula, lettuce, beets, & collards, and there were so many sprouts by the end of it, that we both got to eat a big bowl of fresh Mars salad for lunch on Saturday.

Tonight, I think we'll be having more salad with dinner -- the big head of lettuce on the front porch (the winter planting's lone survivor of the January cold snap) is calling my name, & the mustard greens in the front window are getting out of control again.

Here's how it looked on the front porch on Saturday morning, before I got started:

Here's how it looked in the back yard:

Zoey's contribution lately has been stepping on plants as she tries to eat the grass behind the beds. Very unhelpful.

Then, overnight on Saturday, Mars Farm came under attack from unknown Critter or Critters, digging around in the dirt:

trampled collards

a near miss for the favas

almost all of the second planting of spinach is gone

I would post Zoey out there to stand guard, but I'm pretty sure she would do just as much damage, trying to get at that grass.

The Paparazzi Got Me

A wily paparazza snuck into the back yard while I was putting up my pea trellis!

A Trellis for the Peas

The big news this week on Mars Farm is that everything is now sprouting & growing happily. Today, I put in a few more carrot, spinach, beet, & arugula seeds, to extend the harvest by a few weeks, & put up a net for the rapidly growing peas to grab on to:

Now more waiting!