Planting Week
All last week was pretty warm so we decided to go ahead and get most of the spring garden in. As we have expanded our growing spaces, we tend to have one to two very full weeks of garden preparation and sowing every spring. So last week we set school aside, let the dishes and laundry pile up (even more than usual) and spent the majority of every day preparing beds and planting.
The chicken field space saw long rows of cucumbers, squash, and melon seeds go in. Next to that are rows of tomatillo and tomato starts we planted a couple of months ago. These now sit beside the rows of beets, lettuce, green onions, radish, and collards that we planted several weeks ago which are hiding in the above photo between many weeds. In addition, over by the potatoes (which are now 4-6 inches high!), is a corner with five rows of green beans.
Besides expanding the chicken field a bit, one huge addition this year that I think we are all excited about (and perhaps most of all me) is a kitchen garden. Stewart made some raised beds from concrete and the boys and I added a bed lined with rock from around the property. These were planted in various pepper, tomato, and cabbage starts as well as various seed and herb varieties. Lord willing, we will put another bed in next week to house the tomato, tomatillo, and eggplant we started weeks ago. If the Lord wills, our plan is to use this space more as the fresh eating garden and have the chicken field be our preserving, big crop-growing, possible farmer’s market sale vegetable plot.
One of the reasons we filled most of our days with soil and shovels and seeds last week is due to the rain forecasts for this week. Last night we awoke to that inimitable rain on a tin roof sound and today it has continued, off and on. I am so grateful for the work the Lord allowed last week, the rains this week, the huge amounts of help the children pitched in, the provisions of seeds as well as compost and topsoil we were able to find on sale last fall for the kitchen garden, the work and thoughtfulness Stewart put into making “Mama’s Garden”, and the almost unbelievable changes to our soil in the past few years.
So we will see what becomes of those seeds and starts in the coming weeks. For now, we are catching up on school books and all of the other things that inevitably get put on the back burner when you spend a week wrist-deep in dirt. And what a lovely week that was.
My husband finally retired, and the first thing he did was go buy a new lawn mower and a new tiller. Our daughter’s friend plowed and tilled for us last year but it was hard on me because there were rocks and grab grass roots that I battled all summer. So, two weeks ago, he bought the tiller and he tilled and tilled until we had uncovered and raked up rocks and roots, and then we spread out some seasoned cow manure and the compost that I have tended to for over a year, and then we planted. We are vegetarian so we planted a variety of beans (green, pinto, navy, black, and butter), we planted a variety of peas, and this year we planted the yard long beans, which we tried eating last summer and we loved them. We planted squash, potatoes, tomatoes, turnips, beets, and cabbage. I added Loofa gourds and bird house gourds to the very back of our property because they sale so well at the farmer’s market. We expanded our herb garden and we got the seeds and the plants in the ground. My husband and I planted grape vines, black berry bushes, and two plum and two peach trees. We also helped my daughter plant her garden, and she had her calf butchered and gave me the hide. Today, my grandson and I spread the hide out and salted the side that was next to the inside of the calf. I hope tomorrow I am able to scrape all the fat and membranes off so I can apply the egg treatment. So, for us, it has been a busy last few weeks. Tomorrow, since it will still be raining here, my husband is going to finish putting the cabinets in our little house and I will work on the hide for a while and work on a quilt top I am making for my 19 year old grandson. I love our busy life that is so busy but in a different way from when we both worked. I still get up at 5 every morning but I gather eggs that are from our hens and every bit of work we do is for our own sustainability. Too bad we waited so long to learn that we could work for ourselves and have such a richer life.
Congratulations on getting all your preparation done before the rain came, nothing like it to get things growing well, hose water just isn’t as good.
Last week on a program called River Cottage Australia on SBS there was a segment on a man who had a series of old bath tubs on a slight slope, they were full of ‘worm farms’ and the worm juice ran in small pipes to the bottom of the slope, as long as you feed the worms ( they love pumpkin ) and keep them moist , they make huge amounts of very benificial fertilizer liquid and worm castings.
You can find it on Internet at ” SBS on demand ” or find some utube on worm farms in bathtubs.
You may have to set it up in the shade to cope with your harsh Summer heat.
Lovely, congratulations on a job well done, and the comments here are just as lovely as your post! Many blessings on you all ❤️