Farmer MacGregor must have really been somethin'

Vegetable Garden Plans

Between our house and the green barn, we have a circle drive and in the middle of the circle drive I am going to develop a vegetable garden. The drawing below basically shows the curve of the driveway as it comes from the road to the right of the drawing and then bears to the left. The drive is actually an oval as it circles the drawing below. To the left of the proposed garden, we have a sixty foot Norway Spruce that takes up about a twenty foot diameter. Otherwise I would use the entire oval for the garden. Is that as clear as mud?

As you can see, I am being fairly basic this year and not stepping too far out of the ordinary. Each of the burgundy rectangles will be an 8' x 4' raised bed. We have such sandy soil that I am going to have to import some decent, loamy dirt to fill all of these beds. Later, I will add my own composted materials, which the chickens are at this very moment helping to create! I took 6 wheelbarrows of really good straw/manure out to the compost heap. I will focus a little more energy on creating a better compost system this spring/summer.

We want to freeze a lot of things this year so we can enjoy the garden well into next winter. We will have lots of green beans, and I saw a lady freezing tomatoes, instead of canning them. That looked easy and time-saving. We have a prolific pear tree and we are determined to can ALL of the pears this year. The grape arbor is a steady producer of three types of grape that I cook down and make juice. I then can this juice and as needed, I make up a batch of grape jelly. Another nice feature of the farm is an old crab apple tree that gave me 2 bushels of beautiful red apples last year. I still have several jars of that jelly down in the cellar. We also have our wild blackberries and raspberries that will be made into jams and syrup.

Three Sisters

Please note the green circle that says "3 Sisters." Native Americans planted these circular patches all around their villages and planted corn, climbing beans and squash together. The corn would go in first and as it started to get tall, the pole beans would go in. As the beans grew, they would climb up the cornstalks. The beans not only provide good food, but they put nitrogen into the soil. A week after the beans have started to grow, squash is planted around the edge of the circle and the runners are encouraged to grow into the circle. The squash, as it matures, has large leaves that keep weeds from taking over the garden. So, these Native Americans had some excellent thinking going on here! I am going to have three different squash plants growing in my circle: cinderella pumpkins, acorn squash and butternut squash. I have sweetcorn and several varieties of popcorn that I am going to try. The circle will be approximately 15' in diameter. (The drawing is not to scale)

Sunflowers Galore

Our daughter, Lesley, is getting married in our orchard this summer! As you can imagine, we are very excited!!

One of the projects she has requested is that we have lots of sunflowers on hand to help celebrate this great day. So, I have ordered 2,500 sunflower seeds, and I am going to plant every last one of them! This will take some planning, and some plowing. I am going to start about 200 of them in the basement under the grow lights, so we get an early start on the ones that will be planted as a backdrop to the ceremony.


I also have orders to grow some black pearl peppers, (which have black leaves and little black peppers that turn scarlet when ripe.), as well as a lot of coleus. I will plant these things everywhere and when the time comes for decorating and making things for the wedding, Lesley and Ruth (and no doubt moi) can get out the scissors and cut away to her/their/our/my heart's content!

Six Weeks Old

This is a Cochin/Maran combo. I have a feeling it is a rooster, as there are little nubs on the insides of the legs, which probably will be spurs. This little guy is so cute! He was docile and content to sit on my hand and look around at all the wonders that are outside of the brooder box.

Monday is hatch day at school where I have an incubator containing 37 eggs. Our school had a power outage one night for three hours, so I am not hopeful for a great hatch. I expect about 50% of the eggs to hatch, but you never know! I candled the eggs and every one seemed to be doing well. So, either this is a miracle batch, or I am really bad at candling. One of my students and I made a candler out of a powerful flashlight, but we found that the computer presenter's light was way better! I hope to gain a good number of brown egg layers from this batch. If not, then I will try again. $5.00 per dozen for the eggs, plus a small shipping fee! The eggs are Rhode Island Reds, Light Brahmas, and Black Sex Links, (or Black Stars).

I'll let you know!!