The Flicker Haven Farm Files-And So Goes The Hoe...

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In true spring fashion, my workload is increasing around the farm. Not that I don't have a million things to do all the time, but here lately I have been in full homestead gardener mode.

Something that makes that mode a bit more challenging to maintain is that I also have some super busy offspring to herd as well. For the last two days I have been attending my son's district track meet along with blogging, Listnerding, and farming. It's been a trip.

The good thing is that my kiddo's district meets have been at our school, so it's only a short three mile drive up the hill to his competition.

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And he did so well! I am so proud of my baby gorilla for making the varsity track team his freshman year. He is a pretty dedicated guy, and he PR'd in shotput, so some pretty big smiles all the way around. He threw that 12 pound ball of brass just shy of 40 feet.

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Speaking of throwing things, I threw all of my landscaping fabric out of the well house yesterday. Probably didn't utilize as much technique or finesse as my son, but hey, I did get it all out without breaking anything, so that was a win in my mind.

One of the secrets to my gardening success is the several hundred feet of industrial greenhouse floor covering a dear friend gave me years ago. Apparently commercial greenhouses where he lived just throw the stuff away after a few years, but let me tell you, I have been using the stuff for weed suppression and heat sinking purposes for the last at least 8 years or so with great success. The pumpkins, cucumbers, winter squash, summer squash, peppers, and tomatoes love that barrier!

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We live in a very challenging microclimate for warm weather crops, so to have something that traps a bit of heat and suppresses weeds has been invaluable. I also use the fabric to keep weeds from over taking future growing areas because let me tell you, when it gets over 70F here, the weeds can literally be seen growing. It's insane!!

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So my first order of business, after fertilizing the garlic, was to spread the landscape fabric out.

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However, I first gave my developing garlic a good feeding. One of my favorite soil amendments, besides our glorious farm made compost, is Neptune's Harvest Fish And Kelp Emulsion. I absolutely adore the stuff. In the past I even wrote an ode of adoration for that stinky substance. Our soil, while well-drained and relatively rock free, also has like zero nutrients. No selenium, magnesium, calcium, phosphorous, the list goes on....

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After years of cover cropping and judicious compost application, the soil in my garden has some glorious body to it and will grow most anything well, but an application of the fruit de mer does wonders for my plants overall vibe.

Plus I want garlic bulbs the size of baseballs, so as it is bulb development time (our garlic is finished growing in July here in North Idaho), I am going to hit my beautiful, developing bulbs with some emulsion over the next few weeks.

I also need to get off my duff and make some garlic scape pesto too, as the scapes of my hardneck varieties are looking mighty fine for such a thing. Maybe this coming week...

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After garlic care, I went on to spreading the fabric. It's not really a hard job, especially as I have had a lot of practice at it, and faster than you can say, DOGCAT get out from underneath there!, I had the fabric all spread out and secured.


Then it was time to get hoeing.


This year I was kind to myself, as I spent most of the first quarter of this year with Long Covid, and only put in a couple hundred row feet of potatoes. They have to be hilled at least two times, and it helps if I keep the soil loose and weed free with regard to future hilling.

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So, I, my stirrup hoe, and a really eclectic and upbeat playlist, bebopped our way through a pretty large chunk of weed removal. I so wish all garden cultivars grew in the manner of weeds. I also know I am not the first gardener to think this, nor will I be the last, but holy carpet of invaders!

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Once that job was finished, I took a little breather and checked on the progress of the cold weather crops and the hops. Ooh, that rhymed!

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The hops are really starting to emerge. I am so, so excited to see just how tall they get! I am hoping for 30 feet, so yes, they got a dose of fish emulsion too!

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My volunteer collards are starting to look super tasty, like so tasty that I think a bowl of broth stewed collards might be in my future, maybe with some tasty Udon noodles....yum...

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The snow peas have erupted from the soil which made me squee a bit, because in a month or so that means I will be out there snacking on them while I mulch stuff and putter about, and the little baby radishes and their green butterfly wings put me in an even better state of anticipatory happiness, because I will be eating those spicy little bulbs even sooner!

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My last plant check was the volunteer lettuce that presented itself in one of my pathways. I adore lettuce of all types, especially red lettuce, and the color of my volunteer lettuce doesn't disappoint. Just look at that burgundy shade of gorgeousness on the tips of those leaves!

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After baling out, scrubbing, and re-filling the horse trough and the duck pool, I wandered into the house to get cleaned up for the track meet. Each day right now is filled with the fantastic industrious of spring growth explosion. All that's missing in my part of the world is a little bit of warmth. It has been a very cool and wet spring here, but if I know anything about North Idaho is that it is a land of extremes. It probably won't be long until I am out in the garden in shorts and sweating at like 6AM. Yee haw!!


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And as most of the time, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's super thankful it doesn't smell like fish and kelp emulsion iPhone. The text divider image was made in Canva.




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33 comments
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Whoever is directly controlling the V2K told me to kill myself.
They told me if I killed myself now it would save the lives of countless others.
Saying the longer I wait to kill myself the more people will suffer.


They are reckless and should have shown the proper media what they had before taking me hostage for 5 years. I know there are many in prison that dont deserve to be there because of this. Your stay in prison will not be fun @battleaxe and friends. People are going to want you dead when they find out what you did. I hope you die a slow painful death. You sick mother fuckers.

https://peakd.com/gangstalking/@acousticpulses/electronic-terrorism-and-gaslighting--if-you-downvote-this-post-you-are-part-of-the-problem

Its a terrorist act on American soil while some say its not real or Im a mental case. Many know its real. This is an ignored detrimental to humanity domestic and foreign threat. Ask informed soldiers in the American military what their oath is and tell them about the day you asked me why. Nobody has I guess. Maybe someone told ill informed soldiers they cant protect America from military leaders in control with ill intent. How do we protect locked up soldiers from telling the truth?
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You are experiencing a cool and wet spring. We, in The Netherlands, are having a really warm and dry spring. We desperately need some rain ... but it's not in the nearby future apparently.

But look at all that freshly growing gorgeous green! That will be some tasty meals for you in the not so distant future. I love to see those 50 shades of growing greens.

And yeah, if I could come over ... I would!

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Oh no! Warm and dry and in need of rain is not good at all, especially in your part of the world I bet, I always imagine the Netherlands as coastal temperate and lush with green grass and such. Hope you get some precipitation soon!

Fifty Shades Of Green is a book that I would read, especially if it had plant pictures lol!

And I wish you could drop by for a snack and a chat lol! With the pups in tow, we could throw tennis balls for that wild bunch!

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Thanks for the update. I am battling weeds just in my grass in the garden. They are driving me mad! lol

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Ugh, they are just relentless, aren't they? lol! Keep up the good fight! I hope you are winning!

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this plants are growing fast get ready to harvest soon...and the shinny plant looka like ewedu, a draw soup in nigeria...welldone dear

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I had never heard of ewedu and I had to look it up! What a fantastic plant! Hops does kinda resemble it! Thank you so much for stopping by!!

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Fabulous post. I dropped my phone in the comfrey tea the other day.. had to throw the cover out as it stank like hell, as did my arm from reaching in there😂 phone survived though 😂

I just got rid of three hop bines, they were taking over my garden.. but left one.

Jealous of your weed matting... Must save you so much work in long run.

Off to fertikise my garlic .. thanks for the reminder!!

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Oh slimetopia scented NO! I mean, comfrey is so magical, lol, just soaked into the ground, not us LOL! Glad the phone made it!

There is definitely a reason I only planted the two bines, didn't want a hops forest throughout the garden lol!

The landscape fabric is the absolute best! I am pretty sure I am going to have to replace it eventually, as the UV rays of our big orb do break it down over time, but I just love that I kept something from going to the landfill and put it to work in a good way!

And I hope your garlic bulbs get GARGANTUAN!

Thanks for stopping by!😊

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Because I read your post, I went and fertilising them!

What will you use the hops for?

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Nice!

I love hops tea! So medicinal and tasty, and my hubs brews all sorts of beer (and wine and all manner of fermented drink) throughout the year, so I am excited to have home-grown hops of our own for him to experiment with!

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Oh it's amazing as a tea isn't it? I have meditator friends that don't touch alcohol or any intoxicant but they drink hops tea so strong it'd make your face pucker up. I like it watered down in a chamomile/lavender/tulsi/rose blend I make. It's the best! WE started it for booze but never used it for that, only to calm ournevous system down. It's the best think for migraines, you know when you get a little panicky coz of the pain and can't sleep? A hops and chamomile with honey helps take the edge off.

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It won't be long before your whole garden is green. It will really be beautiful then. Thanks for sharing.

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I am so looking forward to that point, thanks for stopping by!

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...attending your son's track meets, blogging, Listnerding, and farming...

Wow. How do you do it all? You have a cool farm. I know it's a lot of work with the hoeing, weed removal etc. I hope you do have some help.

Lovely pictures. Thanks for sharing. !LUV 🙂

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I do get asked that a lot! LOL! Honestly, I am just so happy to be alive that I fill up every day with lots of things. Sometimes it's a bit much, but here lately I have gotten better at saying no to excess obligations and focused on the things I love to do (farming, writing, spending time with my kiddos) so then I don't feel overly busy at all, just happy😊

Thank you so much for stopping by! !CTP

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Have your garlic gotten to that size before? I use a mixture that includes the Neptune once a week, but mainly I depend on getting those micros in via the amendment mix. That has precisely what is missing, as I make it according to the soil test.

Peas were officially planted yesterday, a week later than I wanted to do it. But it's done.

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I've gotten the bulbs to about palm size (I have pretty small hands though). The year I got them that big was the year I planted them straight into a huge amount of composted cattle manure and hit them hard with bonemeal and Neptune's Harvest. This year I have a variety of garlic that I am super excited about, Music, that's supposed to yield well and be largish....as always, we will see lol!

And I planted my peas way later than normal due to the cold weather snap, glad you got yours in!! Now we just have to hope we don't get 90+degrees in June lol!

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As always you absolutely amaze me with the amount of work you can do in one day. Do you sleep? Lol

Hope you have a fracking awesome weekend 😎

!BBH

!ALIVE

!CTP

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Oh yes, I love to sleep! Which is probably why I can get so much done lol! Trust me though, there are days I am dragging! Today is one of them, it's drizzly outside and I am feeling a nap coming on lol! Well, maybe not, the kids, neighbor kids, and I are going to have a hot dog roast lol! Guess I will sleep later!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend too!!

!PIZZA

!CTP

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Because this is such an awesome post, here is a BBH Tip for you. . Keep up the fantastic work

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Lovely garden. I love seeing other people's progress as I am relatively new to gardening and doing it on a small scale.The garlics look great.

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Oh! I am going to wander over to your blog! I love seeing other people's gardens and progress too, it really motivates me and I almost always learn a ton! Thank you so much for stopping by, hope you have a glorious weekend!

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Aww thank you and same to you. Have a “healthy, happy, green” weekend (thst is the name if my garden).

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First off, I absolutely love your posts! And your son deserves a big congrats for getting a PR! And on his first varsity meet no less! That is truly amazing!

Secondly, I love how informative you are, and all the tips you give out on how you get the best yields on plants for your specific microclimate! Our climate is very humid most of the time, however, as is in most of the states, the weather can be pretty unpredictable! (2 months ago we had a week of snow, followed by a week of 70° sunshine, then the following day had another 2 inches of snow!) You also got me wishing I would have went through with planting the garlic before it started getting too hot!

The weeds in my garden are looking about the same haha, so don't feel bad! But it seems like you got an effective way to keep them at bay! (You're rhyming was much better btw lol) Unfortunately I haven't found an effective way to combat them yet..these suckers grow back almost as big overnight it seems!

But as for the potatoes? When would you start mounding them up? My taties are growing at an exponential rate so far, and as I keep weeding, I keep losing more and more dirt around the plant, but I'm making sure to keep adding more good dirt around it! I'll have an update coming relatively soon, so you can see how much they grew this past week!

As of right now, I'm unsure when exactly I'll be able to make said update past, due to some family matters that just came about..which I'm also considering opening up about in a separate post, because for some weird reason, it's easier to talk about certain things in your life to people you don't know. Just me, maybe? Lol

Anyways, forgive me for ranting! But please keep the updates coming! I love to see how everything is progressing on your farm; and with your heat retaining greenhouse cloth, you have me wondering if I could keep planting a few quick growing cold weather crops once summer starts to pass, if they could possibly be ready before first frost!

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Oh! Thank you so much for all the kind words!

And you weather sounds a lot like ours at times lol, except for the humidity, we don't get a lot of that here!

I don't know, that bay/way rhyme was pretty excellent, and yes, those darn weeds are relentless, without that huge chunk of barrier I think I would have to sleep out in the garden from May-July. Weed growth slows down a chunk once the heat of summer gets here, but that 60 day spring into summer period sucks lol!

And one of the best things about blogging is being able to throw yourself out there, so I totally get where you are coming from with the whole posting to people you don't know thing. I am sorry you are going through some family matter weeds too, dangit, I hope it all works out well for you all!

And no forgiveness needed! Rant away anytime, I love rambling comments, can't ya tell? lol!

Oh, and I have put in late crops lots of times, usually around late July, if I get worried about frost hurting stuff in the fall I just trot out some floating row cover or a low tunnel. Usually I just go for it when it comes to growing stuff, sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't, but there's always something that works lol!

Thanks for stopping by, hope you are having a fantastic weekend!

!PIZZA

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