I wanted to take some time to talk about changes on our homestead this year. We've been adding things, improving things, organizing things, experimenting with things...we've been busy! We've changed things in several areas, but I want this post to focus on the garden.
Since we had big plans for the garden this year I knew that I'd have to be organized if there was any way we'd succeed at keeping everything alive. So, I took some time this winter and planned out our garden.
I also made up a binder with each month's homestead duties listed. This way I won't go to do something (like prune fruit trees or start seeds inside) and realize that I should've already done it last month.
Based on the past couple years, Shawn and I knew that the two of us are no match for the number of weeds that this property can produce. So, we took drastic measures this year and decided to mulch our entire garden with wood chips. We got the idea for this by watching "Back To Eden." It's a free movie available online. So, we are currently covering our garden with wood chips as we plant an area. Then Shawn is also collecting grass clippings every time he mows. We're adding the grass clippings to the top of the wood chips in the garden.
Everything was going great until a couple nights ago when we got a last-minute frost. Now everything is a little burned in the garden. I think it'll all survive, but it doesn't look nice and pretty like it did before the frost.
Carrots
Peas are being grown on cattle-panel arbors
Cauliflower and cabbage
Blueberries
Turnips
Beets (background has arbors where green beans and cucumbers will be planted)
Garlic and onions
Potatoes being grown in tires (one of our experiments this year.) As the plants get taller we'll add another tire to the stack and fill it with dirt. The theory is that the potatoes will grow vertically and fill up the tires.
So, that's where we currently are in the garden. Lord willing, I'll add separate posts here detailing what we're doing in the orchard, vineyard, and with the animals on the homestead.
Your property looks so lush and green compared to up here in my part of Canada. I love your idea of the binder with monthly homestead duties. I will copy that idea, so I don't have to figure it all out again year after year! I'm wondering why you have the garlic and onions covered? Why them in particular?
ReplyDeleteIt's great to see you posting again, and I'm looking forward to upcoming homestead news :-).
I'd love to see your carrot harvest. I've tried for 3 years, and when we harvest they are so twisted they break off in the ground. This year we're only doing lettuce and green beans, since I'll be hugely pregnant come harvest time.
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