How Does My Garden Grow?

I am going to take Sandra's advice and post about my garden a little over the course of the season, both as a way to record my progress and as a way to share my experience. If I inspire anyone to grow some of their own food, then all the better!

So, how does my garden grow right now? Very slowly. I am in the process of setting it all up and I am focusing on the foundation of the design, rather than trying to get a bunch of food going this year.

We have a big grassy area on the southern side of our property that is perfect for a vegetable garden. Lots of sunlight, good drainage, easy access from the house. In the picture below, I am standing in the driveway looking towards the house. The pile of leaves on the left, where A is crouched down, is the edge of where the garden is going in. The leaves cover up the area where we had a huge dead maple tree removed and the stump ground. I call it my resource pile because I am using the leaves and woodchips as a source of organic material for my raised "lasagne" beds. Basically, I am using this year to build good soil for growing the food next year.

In the picture below, I am right next to the resource pile, looking southward-ish to the garden area. What you see here is woodchip mulch from the trees we had taken down last fall layed out for paths and a couple of the raised beds I started. I layed cardboard down first to kill the sod and then piled on leaves and some bunny poop, and then a layer of soil sifted out from the rocks. I got the soil from digging a trench around the garden perimeter which should help with drainage. It is a good thing I choose raised beds, since the dirt under the grass is mostly rocks! I will continue to layer on other things like compost as I acquire or make them.

After I had gotten everything going, I realized I could make edges for my raised beds with tree trunks from some downed pine trees in our woods. I want to clear out the pines anyway, to allow the hardwoods to grow and let in more light for other plants, like the raspberries and apple trees that are in the woods. Below are the first two beds we made, ready for planting. I put in a few rows of peas today in one of the beds from some old seeds we had on hand. The soil is not very deep, and we don't have a fence up around it all yet, but I figure if the seeds grow and the deer and other critters nibble a few, we won't be out much time, energy or money. And if no animal eats them, we get peas. I am not planting any seeds or plants I buy this year, until the fence is up!

So, that is where I am in my gardening journey this year. Stay tuned for more!

Instead of 8000 Words

Here are a few pictures to update a few weeks of goings on around here.
Magnetics jewelry:

Our glass Easter eggs:

Look what I baked! Awesome no-knead bread:

Chicks at 1 week old:

And here they are at a little over two weeks old:

E found a baby Painted Turtle in the yard far from the pond. We held him a little bit and then set him free down by the water.

We got C a basketball for his birthday, with the implied gift of a hoop to shoot it in. We finally got the hoop and set it up this week:

That's all, folks!

Creating Eden

Ok, next time you have an hour and a half to spare, don't watch that TV show or movie from Netflix, watch this instead:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7404455615181917912&ei=ZMHsSejnGoLorgK43pzhCw&q=food+forest




You will be much better off and hopefully inspired to take action towards creating a little slice of Eden in your backyard. I know I will be! With the state of things in the world today, really what more could we do?

I Want It All

And NOW. I am so impatient. Why does it take so long for trees to grow up? Can't vegetable gardens just spring up in a few weeks and feed you? Do I reeeeeallly have to wait 20 weeks to get an egg out of these chickens? I mean, really? Where is the magic wand that will decide for me the best heating system to put in and then make it happen, *poof*? Point me to the group of great local friends the girls and I can rely on! I'm waiting....

When we started moving in to the house, my mantra was, "we have all the time in the world, take your time". And it is true. I can take my time building up the life that I create in my mind. There is no major driving force that is making me get anything done at any particular time. The problem is I can't be patient about it. I want it now.

Well, the good thing about all this, is that I live in a place where I don't have the urgency I felt in VA and NV to live more sustainably. I am living in a community where I have access to local sustainably grown food, and the people here are already thinking about all the issues that concern me. I mean, I can take my time with getting the garden set up because I joined a great CSA for this summer. The pressure is off to feed us from our own land, this year anyway. Hey, maybe that is the problem! Maybe I need the pressure to get me going. Oh well, not such a terrible problem to have, huh?

Off to the farmers market....

Farmer?

Hey, I am on a roll! 4 posts in four days!

When one buys a house with 8 acres of land and decides to attempt to grow a large portion of the food they need, possibly selling any surplus, you could call that person a farmer, right? Small scale farmer, for sure, but still a kind of farmer. I totally expected to get to the point where I call myself a farmer, after I had all the gardens and trees and all in and we were harvesting enough produce to need that farmstand at the end of the driveway.

Turns out I think I am getting a taste of a different kind of farmer, the animal raising kind. We now have in our care:
4 gerbils
2 cats
1 rabbit
and 6 chickens.

I went from caring for one cat who you rarely saw, to being the caretaker to thirteen creatures. Every day, we have to feed, water, clean up after, and give love and attention to them all. The girls have been great helpers, doing their share of the work, and pitching in to help me do the rest.

I am not complaining about the work. I am just starting to feel that my life has changed in a profound way. I am now a farmer. I am not yet getting anything much out of these animals, but I have to put in the time and effort anyway. Things like vacations will now require a big effort to make sure the animals are well cared for when we are out of town. The budget is impacted with the food and bedding needs of these animals.

Soon, we will get some fiber from Stella, and then the chickens will lay eggs for us. The cats already provide mouse population reduction duty, and the gerbils turn cardboard into compost carbon/brown inputs (and tiny amounts of poop!). There will be other animals in the future, too. A pig each year for the freezer sounds nice, C thinks a goat for milk would be good, and some chickens for meat could easily be added to the mix. And somewhere in there, we will be growing a significant percentage of our food. A few years from now, we might even make some money from all this farming!

Oh, I forgot to mention that all of the animals we have now are female, so with me and the girls, girls out rank boys in this household 16 to 1! Poor C. We told him we need to get a bull to balance things out! Maybe one of the chicks will grow up to be a rooster and he won't be so outnumbered. Of course, that rooster will have to go, so...

This One's For Tara...

...even though I know she already knows this:

http://organictobe.org/index.php/2009/04/09/manure-more-precious-than-gold/

See, I am not crazy to be applauding the glory of the poop!

Now, to go find me some shipping pallets to build the ultimate composter...

Don't Mess With Mama Goose

Guess Who's Here?

Yep, my 27 days are up and we have our babies! I'm sure I don't know what I am doing, yet, but I will make up for it in enthusiasm, internet searches and trial and error!

Speaking of mistakes, does this look like my first big one or what?

I swear that cat thinks I am the greatest. I mean, I just keep bringing in snacks for her!

Aren't they cute though?

I can't wait for the eggs! Oh yeah, and did I tell you they are in competition with the bunny for the best poop for my garden? Yay, more poop!

p.s. hey, Tara, how about that last line?