Busy As A Bee

Clearing the land for our newest adventure

      I feel rather guilty for having abandoned the blog lately due to good weather and a ton of work that needs done.  Sorry folks, but cooler days and sunshine don’t happen every day, and we really need to make the most of these good weather days as we can.  I’ll try to do better in the future with these updates! 

The Main Garden

      In a few short weeks, we should be tilling under our buckwheat cover crop and setting out our transplants!  Well, at least that was the plan.  So far the “plan” has gone to seed, with the lack of our buckwheat seeds germinating reasonably and well, growing.  It unfortunately, all falls back to that cold December day when the seeds catalogs got out of control (The Arrival of the Seed Catalogs), and then this bizarre idea that we could “garden easily” (Experiments in the Vegetable Garden). 

Our broccoli are producing heads!

    Now it’s spring and the dreaming of a perfect garden has ceased, and the work of clearing the land and attempting the simple idea of making this a better year than the previous has begun.  So, without buckwheat sprouting, my husband retilled the whole garden, before we begin measuring out the garden plots, tilling one last time before the cool weather seedlings are transplanted, and mulching each of the rows with care.  (Please Note: this was our back-up plan, which will also have to be reworked as when I checked the garden this morning, after writing this yesterday, the buckwheat is now growing, post-till.)  

      The bonus in all of this is the night he tilled; we noticed some nice small heads forming on our three over-wintered broccoli plants!

     

The Upper Garden

The "Upper Garden" was originally an overgrown berry patch, when in 2013, we decided to make it into usable garden space.  That fall we started clearing the land to be an "Upper Garden" or "Historic Garden." 

      Last year was the year of the weeds in our upper historic garden, which was used as a mid-nineteenth century coal miners’ garden.  Being as historically accurate as possible with the garden led to some downfalls (and an increased workload).  This year there is still a strong debate about whether we give the historic garden a second chance, or use the space to plant some extra crops that our new additions might enjoy! 

      In the meantime, I am starting to clear out some of the mess in our berry patch, which surrounds the edges of the garden.  We learned the hard way, there’s some multiflora rose in there, and we want it out before we need to harvest berries again. 

Yes, even in 2014 all those weeds with 19th century practices got away from us.  The question this year is do we upgrade to modern practices with some heirloom seed varieties, or give it another go the old-fashioned way?

The New Additions

Bricking the Flower Bed

      Aside from the flower beds that still need fixed, the previous two garden projects, and some frisky farm cats that are keeping us on our toes (we are hoping to capture the two little girls soon to get them to the vet a.s.a.p.), there’s seven new additions on their way that are making our lives all the more interesting!  Yup, we’re starting a flock, which means the building of brooder boxes, a chicken coop and clearing the land they are going to live on. 

     What's been going on at your house?  Are you looking forward to spring planting, or have you already started?