We are progressing on our garden plans for this year. We’ve had some really warm days, and the nights are starting to warm up now, so planting for some things has started, and other things will be put in the ground soon. We are almost done with our raised bed garden that we’ve been working on, and we are getting the other beds ready as well. Here are some pictures of the goings-on for late May on our farm:
We moved the rabbits outside for the summer. Here is Buddy, our buck. Our does are due next week with babies.I am working on fencing the side of the house where the hollyhocks and comfrey are – here the chickens have snuck in since I haven’t finished the fence yet. Silly chickens.The herb garden (the back of the house garden) is almost ready, we just need to fence it and fix the pathways, since the chickens have messed those up. The fence will keep the chickens out. They think it’s their dust bath.The main garden is over halfway done with the raised bed system that we’re putting in – here you can see a hole in progress. We’ve come to the hardest part of this garden, the part that we most recently re-claimed from the yard, so it’s super rocky.Here are some carrots from last year that were hiding in the garden. I found them as we were digging. You can see here why I needed to do a double-dug system. Our clay soil can be so dense that roots don’t go very deep. They should be able to get larger this year.My lemon balm is doing fantastic. (next to potato bags).Here is my garlic.The onions are coming up nicely.The peas are doing very well also. I am working on a trellis system to put over them so they have something to climb.Here are some potatoes growing in the bags. So far this is working ok, but I think I will be trying buckets next year. The bags don’t stay as open as I’d like them to. Here are some of my seedlings under my grow lights. I have tomatoes and squash, herbs and melons all started. I will be hardening them off here shortly.Here is the tomato garden. I am taking back a section of chicken run that they really don’t use much, and I’ve dug individual holes for each tomato plant. I’m planning on putting pumpkins in this area too, so I can train them over the fence. I’m digging deep holes that will essentially be tiny raised beds for each plant. They’ll get compost next, and then filled in with loosened soil before I plant the tomatoes and things.Our trees are really leafing out now. There are a few things that are just budding, but these maples are in full leaf.Our yard is nicely green.
The garden is coming along nicely. I’m really glad that we’ve had such a nice spring so far.
At my last post, we had gotten a whole bunch more snow in mid-April. Within 2 weeks of that, the snow was pretty much all gone. Now we’re well into spring, and I’ve been busy digging, and planting, this year’s garden. I started seeds inside for tomatoes, some herbs, and flowers at the end of April, and have started potatoes, onions and peas already in the garden.
I came across a book in our house (one of my mom’s, probably) called Backyard Bonanza, a little pamphlet book from the 70s; it’s about the French Intensive, double-dug raised bed method. It’s essentially doing double-dug raised beds, without using lumber to surround the bed – you have beds that are permanent, and double dug, where you don’t ever step on them again, surrounded by permanent pathways. The compaction on the pathways will eventually keep weeds down on them, and the double-dug method gives your plants enough room to put their roots really deep, so you can plant a lot more vegetables in less space. I’d read about double dug beds before and thought “that’s too much work,” but I decided to try it for my main garden this year after reading this book. It’s really not too bad, since I have time – I won’t be planting most things in there until June, so I’m doing a bed a day every couple days, to let my back recover between, and not work too hard. Here are some pictures of the garden and the farm this spring:
Our snow about a week after that big storm (so roughly 4/21 or so).The chickens playing in the bit of yard that was exposed that first weekHere is the garden about 2-3 weeks after that last snow storm. I’ve sectioned it off here for the raised bed system.Another pic of the yard/meltage. It’s now getting more green now than shown in this photo.Here is a section all done. I have 1-foot paths between everything, and 1.5-2 ft. paths around the edges inside the garden fence. My garden is inside my dog fence, and my dogs like to pee on the fence. The large border (plus tall grass that grows at the fence) will keep their pee off our plants.Here is part of the garden. The bags are potatoes – I am trying that method again this year (using feed bags) but this year I cut those shorter instead of rolling the bags. I’ll only fill them over the potato plants once or twice. The farthest corner here with straw has my garlic that I planted in the fall. I have about 30 or so garlic plants coming up now.Here I am digging the pea bed. The onions are behind me here (toward the garage).Here is one bed dug and one almost done. I dug a shovel-depth down (roughly a foot) and then the next shovel layer is all forked nice and loose, and I added some compost to this layer and tilled that in with the fork. I then added the dug-out dirt back in, and made sure it was all nice and crumbly. The paths get buried by dirt, which blocks the weeds for the time-being.Here I am digging with the fork again. The paths will all be mulched with straw when I’m done so we know where to step before things are growing well.Pulling rocks and weed roots out. We have lots of rocks, and many dandelion roots.Here you can see how clay-orange my soil is. I try to add a lot of composted chicken and rabbit manure to amend it.The big green bin is the weed bin – I fill it and then toss it in the woods or give the weeds to the ducks and chickens.
This garden will have 11 of these raised beds this year (it would be 12 but the garlic was already in for the year – I’ll re-do that one in the fall after I harvest the garlic). So far I’ve dug 3 beds, and planted two of them. I have 8 more to go, but most of those will be plants that will go into the garden in June. I also will have the herb garden and tomatoes in the back in other plots. I’m stealing some area back from the chickens for my tomatoes and squash this year, since they usually have the whole yard to roam in, minus the dog run. I’m excited for this year’s garden.
My tiny u.p. farm 