Starts






It has been a long time since my last post and that is because as I was about to post my latest about our house closing, shopping for a new homestead and preparing to move all of the animals and some of the plants, the deal came crashing down. My family was devastated. Everything was signed and ready to close when the buyer's bank pulled their financing. We are now back on the market but still going forward with this year's garden, animal preparations and firewood processing. After all, if we don't manage to sell our house this year, winter will still come and we will still want good, fresh food and wood to keep us warm.

The day the deal fell through, I made a list and when my Farmer's market opened on Saturday I went in and bought eight more tomato plants. As I hadn't started many seedlings indoors this year, I had to buy a great deal. I also bought cucumber plants, basil and Jalapeno for the hoop house




This is my favourite time of year because this is the time in the growing season I am still under the impression I can control my garden. Weeding is not difficult yet and I am full of optimism that everything I plant will grow into a bountiful garden. Pests are there of course, but not in full force. There are no giant sized grasshoppers or cabbage moths yet and everything looks fresh and new. 

Bean Tee-Pee
I planted bush beans in the hoop house and pole beans in the bean Tee-Pee with Romaine lettuce (Cos), kale and spinach in the middle hoping the grown beans will offer the greens some needed shade in summer. I have always planted squash as one of the first crops in a new garden bed and have been successful. I have this one garden bed that has become a catchall for any extra manure, seaweed, hay, etc. It has never been dug just all piled on top of the lawn in a heap. I put a shovel full of good soil on top of the heap and put my seeds in. They are growing but I want to know if they will be able to access the nutrients in the unbroken down pile or not.


I will build this pile until I reach three feet
Just as I was describing this to my mother, she told me about "HugelKultr".This link explains what the heck that is  www.offgridquest.com/green/638-hugelkultur. Basically this allowed me to fill an unused garden bed with old rotten logs and sticks and then put in compost, weeds, animal manure and bedding but instead of waiting for all of that to completely break down, I can put a few inches of soil on top of it and plant directly into it. This sounded so similar to my squash experiment I just had to try it! I will let you know how it goes.

I was so shocked and disappointed about the house not selling but my garden is offering me therapy and with beautiful, sunny days right now, it is getting harder to worry about the future. 

Comments

  1. Anonymous9 June 2023 at 23:01

    Author Update: I liked gardening so much, I became a professional gardener with my own gardening business.

    ReplyDelete

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