After our neighbor, Mr. Covington, used his tractor to uproot and drag out all the thorns and brush, Nate tilled the soil to further prepare it...this part of land has never been cultivated before and it was very, very tough ground.
After Nathan tilled the entire quarter acre all by himself (I'm sure to some of you that is nothing, but for first timers, it was A LOT to do) we had to build our rows. The gardening method we are following has been created from a gardener by the name of Edward Smith. He has a great book called The Vegetable Gardener's Bible. His method is called W.O.R.D.
W= wide rows
O= organic methods
R= raised beds
D= deep soil
We built the rows up by shoveling on the soil from where we designated our walkways. They are 2 feet wide as well...this has proven to be fun when weeding...because the rows are so wide 2 people can be weeding the same area at the same time, facing one another and talking!
Once the rows were built, and wow did that expend a lot of energy from us all, we placed what chicken manure we had from the eggmobile on the rows to add nutrients to the soil. Poop?? Nutrients?? Sounds gross, but it's true. As you can see, we need a lot more! That will come with time.
This picture here is the same shot, 7 weeks later!!! Isn't it just amazing? On the far left we have peppers, then green bush beans and onions.
carrots
eggplant
okra
peas
tomatoes
corn
cucumbers
yellow squash
zucchini
watermelon
tigger melon
strawberries
cabbage
spinach
We have been very busy constantly weeding. There is so much to tend to with a garden, but with many young hands, the burden is light! I have been more thankful than ever for the rain since we have no watering system out there yet...praise God for the goodness He brings through the rain!!
We have discovered a mullberry tree across the street! The kids love to ride their bikes in the afternoon and we kept finding squished berries on the road. I decided to eat a few and they were really good!! We had never seen berries growing on a tree so we asked our neighbor what they were. Delicious!!
The goats are growing up like crazy!! They are almost as big as their momma. We decided, for the betterment of the herd, to sell our one goat, Latte...she was the mom of Jack and Jill, our first kids born here on the farm. She was very mean to all the other goats and was always restless. And when it came time to milk her in the mornings, she was a serious pain...less than a quarter cup of milk we would get from her to top it all off. Literally the day after we got rid of her, Mocha's milk production skyrocketed!! I believe she was stressed out from Latte! We are getting 3-4cups from her a day!! We have made goat milk soap with it and I use it to cook/bake with every day, and we are stocking it up in the freezer. Our next adventure will be attempting to make goat milk fudge...yum!!
The next batch of meat birds are 3 weeks old now and have been moved to pasture. We have 100 again and will be butchering the weekend of July 13 for those of you interested in helping/buying!!
Our bee colonies are doing magnificent! I check on them once every 2 weeks. Can you see the larve in the picture?! It's fascinating to open the hives and see all the work they are doing.
After long mornings tending to the garden, feeding and caring for all our animals and doing some school, we LOVE to relax outside under the trees. Spring is beautiful...we are so blessed to be here!!!
I didn't realize you could grow spinach and cabbage in the warmer months. You have lots more in your garden than we do - looks great! Septtro just got our garden in a couple days ago. It's been so cold and so rainy he hasn't had too many chances to do it. :)
ReplyDeleteLove seeing your pictures!!