New Gardening Patches for 2019

Greenhouse after winter storms

Well, Mel and I have had enough of recovering the hoop house greenhouse with plastic each year. No matter what we did, the winds whipping through our hollow just destroyed the plastic. No matter how often we patched it. In the summer months, it's too blasted hot in there for anything to survive inside. Even our few tropical plants whimpered for mercy. With the hanging of plastic on the back porch last fall, we have a 16' x 24' area to use for seed starting. It made the greenhouse obsolete.

We had thought of covering the greenhouse with shade cloth during the summer to continue growing tender crops like lettuces, micro greens, and spinach on the benches built inside. We'd even talked about dismantling it and moving it down in the orchard.As part of our heat the greenhouse in winter, we usually house a couple rabbits in there and practice deep bedding methods. So there's a few months worth in there already composting away. When mixed with peat moss in late winter becomes our seed starting mix for spring planting. This year, we are rethinking the whole kit and kabootle. Did I just age myself with that phrase? Ah, heck, y'all know I'm an elderly, albeit feisty, old broad anyhow, don't you?

We are tearing off the plastic for good off the old hoop house greenhouse. We are building a 3 1/2' wide grow bed on each of the long sides of the structure. On the side that gets the most sun will be our vertical melon patch with watermelon (sugar babies), cantaloupes and honeydew melons. All of these will grow and be anchored to the hoop house. On the opposite side, which is shaded by ancient apple and oak trees, will get a late planting of English peas and bunny green stuff. We are also thinking of climbing roses (rugosa variety) so we'll get the rose hips.

Old rabbit hutches

Mel is also tearing apart the unused rabbit hutches. At least the free standing ones. It's had four years worth of dead leaves, weeds, and rabbit and chicken poop on that ground. Can we spell a F-E-R-T-I-L-E plot ready to be planted? It's not a huge plot, but respectable at 10' x 30'. We can grow a lot of vegetables in that sized plot.The problem is two large oak trees which only allow partial sun at best. Maybe a little more during summer.  We've only talked about it since we completed the bunny barn. Still Mel is gonna do, what Mel's gonna do in her time.

Since we added the rabbit and chicken bedding from last year into the garden and orchard, this spring's clean out can go into these new areas as we expand our growing space. It will give these areas about a foot of extra nutrient boost. It will also raise the planting area so it shouldn't flood. Anything we plant there should not be deficient in much.

We don't add rock dust in our planting areas because you can't dig more than three feet without hitting granite patches. We don't test our soil neither. I'll save my money. We just sprinkle a light coating of wood ash, courtesy of our wood stove each winter, and some calcium, from ground egg shells, maybe a 50 lb bag of sand if drainage is poor over the area before we rake in the compost into our clay soil each year. How do I know we've got good growing soil? Well, ultimately the proof is in the produce. When I can grab a handful of soil and pull up worms and it smells great, it's good enough and it's alive. I don't tend to over think it.

We went through our saved seeds this week to see what we had to purchase for this year. In a couple of words, we don't need much. We need a couple of new items we want to grow like lemongrass, but other than a few annual flower seeds for pesticides and deterrents we are set. I think Mel was pleasantly surprised by this. I've even set aside some Red Bliss potatoes from our harvest to eye out for their March planting date. We'll be planting them in our old tires again. It's a if it ain't broke don't try and fix it kind of things. It's worked all these years, why change it?

So, how's your garden planning going?

Y'all have a blessed day!

Jo

Happy 2017 Y'all!

Happy New Year y'all from the Cockeyed Homestead. This is year two of the new homestead and we've got big plans coming up.

We will be enlarging the garden. Our goal is 25% of our food stock needs. Planting areas include a flax, wheat, and corn plots. These will be a whole new 10x10 planting beds. They will be testing plots to check out varieties and yields. We are starting this small on purpose. We will also be planting our orchard this year. I've researched apples, pears, pecans, peach, blackberry and raspberry brambles, and oak trees since last Spring. I hesitated actually buying the trees and bushes on purpose. But 2017, is the year to grow the orchard. We've spent this winter laying the groundwork for the new organic orchard and test plots.

The garden will take on a whole new layout. This will be the permanent place in front yard. We figure this amount of area will suffice for now. The plan is to clear a few trees this year so we gain a pasture area for our heritage breed chicken project for 2017. Our plan is to have separate areas for different breeds to do a contained/ free range set up. They will help hold down the insect population is the various garden plot areas too. Our goal is to add a dozen chickens of various dual purpose breeds quarterly. They will be butchered on demand meeting our food needs while expanding their flocks size. We will be selling off the excess chicks to fund this project. It also means focusing on a couple of broody breeds to start with. Next year we'll research selling butchered chickens for added profits.

Mel and Moira

The angora rabbitry is complete finally. the long/short range plans included the purchase of new does every year. The search is on for the newest does. We calculated having twenty English angoras by 2020 in breeding and wool production.

Daisy and Moira are old enough to be bred to Dustin. This will be the first generation of our pedigree line of English angora rabbits. We figure to breed them in the Spring. The first batch of meat rabbits will be ready for harvesting about the same time. Tummy yummies rabbit stews and roasts for dinner. This will be the second leg of being more self sufficient in a protein source. We'll also be planting drying beans and peas for additional proteins.

This new year will also see the addition of tiny houses on the property. Yes, they will take time to complete, but we are building a pay as we go set up with no additional debt. The plan is for two of them in 2017, but it may be just one. When the first one of us moves into their tiny house we will also be remodeling the double wide trailer into the community building. The first thing to go is the wall dividing the living room and the office. The next thing is all of the wall to wall carpeting removal. Carpeting is yucky stuff. New plywood flooring will replace it.You'll just have to wait for the video to see what we have planned. It's going to be awesome! We may get the kitchen enlargement done also in 2017 too, but it all depends on finances and time.

We are still on track in our five year plan. So how are y'all doing?

Y'all gave a blessed day.