[AmandaK]

I'm pricing out a basic, expandable system at the Drip Depot place.

Finished the drip irrigation today after work. Nice system from that place.



Next step is mulch and then get ready for my cider apple trees.

[scarecrow]

Not sure if this is the right thread for this question or not. I have a hops vibe and am growing my own this year.  Once I start to get hops is there anything I need to do before I use them?  Wash, boil, dry or just chuck them into the wort.

[klickitat jim]

Not sure if this is the right thread for this question or not. I have a hops vibe and am growing my own this year.  Once I start to get hops is there anything I need to do before I use them?  Wash, boil, dry or just chuck them into the wort.

Pick and put in wort. If you're going to store them then pick, dry, bag, and freeze. I dry mine with a fan. Square common box fan facing down resting on a couple saw horses. Then I put a clean new cheap fyrnace fikter on top and pile my hops on that. Turn on fan. Done in about 6-12 hours depending on how wet and your humidity

[pete b]

I'm pricing out a basic, expandable system at the Drip Depot place.

Finished the drip irrigation today after work. Nice system from that place.



Next step is mulch and then get ready for my cider apple trees.

That's awesome Amanda. I love it when people rip out lawn and put in gardens. Judging from this and your brewery I'll go out on a limb and say you and your husband are not lazy.

[AmandaK]

That's awesome Amanda. I love it when people rip out lawn and put in gardens. Judging from this and your brewery I'll go out on a limb and say you and your husband are not lazy.

Thanks Pete. And while ideally I would like to have plants everywhere... we still have about 9/10 of an acre left of yard, with about 0% chance of that going anywhere, so we aren't making that big of a dent. 

Speaking of not being lazy, I got clearance (and buy in for husband labor - very important!) to pull off a full kitchen reno. Only caveat is that I have to have it finished before August 1st when a handful of my friends visit from across the country. Wish me luck!

[pete b]

That's awesome Amanda. I love it when people rip out lawn and put in gardens. Judging from this and your brewery I'll go out on a limb and say you and your husband are not lazy.

Thanks Pete. And while ideally I would like to have plants everywhere... we still have about 9/10 of an acre left of yard, with about 0% chance of that going anywhere, so we aren't making that big of a dent. 

Speaking of not being lazy, I got clearance (and buy in for husband labor - very important!) to pull off a full kitchen reno. Only caveat is that I have to have it finished before August 1st when a handful of my friends visit from across the country. Wish me luck!

Sounds like we are in the same boat. Work started this week on a 12X12 addition to our kitchen which will become the dining area of an open kitchen. I'll be doing the inside work myself: walls, ceiling, floor, cabinets. I'm still undecided if I'll move to kegging and put taps in. It seems dangerous. We had intended on getting this done over the winter but first cold then snow made that not happen so unfortunately getting the garden in and renovating will happen simultaneously. I'm going to try to make some extra homebrew this week so that in a few weeks I will have that as a recruitment incentive to get some help.

[euge]

Jeez. All that looks great Amanda! Wish my motivation had the same drive as yours! Well my old Marine dad always said "a body at rest tends to stay at rest..."

[kmccaf]

That looks awesome Amada. Glad you found the right irrigation for your garden. What varieties of apples did you go with?

[AmandaK]

That looks awesome Amanda. Glad you found the right irrigation for your garden. What varieties of apples did you go with?

Kingston Black
Dabinett
Jonathan
Honeycrisp

All dwarf root stocks, G41 I believe.

I ordered them from Orange Pippin last year - should be here this week!

We also have a Granny Smith in the "way back" from the previous owners. Outside of a little scald last year, it was a good producer. I'll be more careful this year with watching/spraying it with fungicide now that I'll have 4 reminders in the 'front of the back yard'.

[AmandaK]

Apple trees are here! Very tiny trees for now, and hopefully the super dwarf rootstocks will keep them that way. I also "finished" the irrigation system, but got an idea on how I can add to it to water the blackberries. Dangit self.

Pics:




Almost have all of the fabric down for the mulched area. Looks like we are going to be ordering 11-12 CY of mulch for next week. Then maybe it'll warm up enough that I can get some plants in the ground!

Pretty soon it's gonna be a little garden paradise.

[kmccaf]

Sweeeeeet. Your garden is looking great. I bet it will be nice to drink some of those lagers while sitting around it.

I saw my cortland made it through the Winter, and my crabapple is ready to bloom. I'm going to have a nice long look through those varieties on orange pippin. I would like to get some plums, pears, paw paws, and more Apple trees.

Hopefully I will feel good enough to get out and roto till tomorrow. I got some soil samples prepared to give to soil lab across the street, so there's that at least.

[morticaixavier]

processing the first food from my current 'garden'!

Boiling sap today. Tried to do it yesterday on my brew burner but it was too windy outside and the burner kept blowing out.

tapped 4 trees and have collected ~ 10 gallons of sap so far. so woo hoo! should have a quart of syrup out of this.

The sap is still running. really well now actually so perhaps we'll even get more.

I love Vermont.

[pinnah]

Very cool...back to your roots!
That is a pretty good start to the forest garden.

Wow on the orange pippin - we sure live in a time of having access to amazing variety.
No time like the present to go ahead and plant a tree...

Cheers

[pete b]

Finally the snow is melted enough that I can pull some over wintered parsnips. I made my parsnip and smoked salmon cakes. The parsnips are so sweet!
Despite having 25 acres of forest we have no sugar maples. I guess I can say that at least I'm not spending all the hours collecting and boiling sap. I have friends who always give me some too. I will be dropping trees for next years firewood this weekend.

[morticaixavier]

Ended up with a bit more than a quart. It was warm yesterday and I bet there is another4 or 5 gallons to collect at this point. Probably do another boil early next week and then pull the taps. gonna start staying above freezing at night here pretty soon.