Growing Food

While the rest of the family is off at the baseball field helping to fix the fencing and play on the playground late this Sunday afternoon,  I thought I would take a moment to share some of what we have been doing here on our little homestead.

The warmth of the sun has been helping to dry the soil and really get things growing.  The snap peas and lettuce have sprouted, which I am so excited about - our first food of the year is on its way.

Mike (dear husband) has been putting up the fencing for the goats.  He is making good progress.  We are just using saplings and fencing that we have found, was left behind, or given to us.  We truly don't buy new things all that often.

I have been doing lots in the gardens.  I am expanding them quite a bit.  Last year was our first planting season here and all of the garden areas are brand new - there was not an existing garden - so it does take time.  Our strategy has been to pile compost into the back of our old Suburban (which we have access to for free from a neighbor that has 5 -6 year old composted cow manure - pure black and beautiful stuff!), and then shovel it out into piles on our property.  From there, I wheelbarrow several loads a day to wherever I am planting and just put it right on top of the soil.  If there are a lot of weeds or grass, I just turn it over with a shovel and shake out the soil and then throw the weeds into the chicken's fenced in area.  We do not till the gardens. 

In between the rows I put the chicken house little (in other words, poopy old hay), to provide some protection from weeds and then to become part of the soil for next year. 

So far I have planted about half of the onions, lettuce, snap peas, carrots and parsnips.  For flowers, sweet peas and bachelor buttons.  Next on my list is mixing half sand and half compost to make the mounds for early potato planting.  The small potatoes we over wintered in the basement look great and are growing little sprouts.

Oh, I could just spend the entire day outside when it is as lovely as it has been.  It is amazing how quickly the time goes when you are working.  However, I think everyone would get quite hungry and the house would soon be a mess, and there are always orders to work on - so it is a balance of time.  I am so grateful, though, for the time I do spend outside growing food for our family.

Happy May!

"Welcome be thou, faire, fresshe May."

Geoffrey Chaucer

Warm wishes,

Tonya