Thursday, May 09, 2013

Looking More Like A Homestead Every Day

The past few weeks have been busy ones here, and we have a fair amount to show for it. We have 6 garden beds, roughly 4'X8', enriched with peat moss, and I was thrilled to find two whole and lively worms! Before you wonder about my sanity, I was pretty sure we had no worms whatsoever and we had mostly gravel to deal with. I was pleased to find out we actually have silty loam. Better than I expected, so I was pretty happy.
In the garden bed I prepped last year I planted white clover as a cover crop, we now have cabbage and onions. To step back in time a bit, once all the snow melted, I turned over all that clover and let it rest for about three weeks. Yesterday we added peat moss, turned it all in and planted a combination of white onions, red onions and 'Early Jersey Wakefield' cabbage. We did this because the cabbage and onions make good companion plants. Apparently clover helps repel the cabbage aphid, so if any clover does make a return visit, I'll be leaving it alone. We surrounded the whole thing with chicken wire and re-enforced it and I think it's almost rabbit proof. I just need to add some tent stakes to the bottom. For now though, the wire is pretty close to the ground. I think we'll be fine. Photo is above.

We've also dug up, weeded and sifted a bed for potatoes, but now we need another, since we bought both 'Yukon Gold' and 'Red Pontiac' seed potatoes.

The seedlings are all doing pretty well. We've lost some 'Roma' tomatoes along the way, as well as some peppers. But overall I'm pretty pleased with how we're doing!
We purchased a couple of blueberry bushes the other day in town as well. My 5 year plan calls for blueberries, apples, raspberries, strawberries, with a strong yearning towards grapes. As soon as my raspberries that I ordered from Manitoba arrive, I can tell you more about those, but suffice to say I'm pretty stoked about them!

We bought a 10'X10'X6' dog pen, which will reduce the amount of work we need to do this year building things, but now we need to get it home! It turned out to be bigger than I'd expected, so we're hoping a friend can bring it home with him from work sometime this week. Also new is the BBQ, we're trying to get into town to get it. When we went into town to get it, it turned out that there wasn't a model in the store! Now why a company would put an item on sale, $300 cheaper than usual and NOT have any in store is completely beyond me. It was not as productive a day as I would have liked, and I'll be glad when everything is home where it's supposed to be!
Also added to our mini-homestead-wanna-be is a fire bowl. It's our hope that on less bug-infested nights this spring, we can get the boys outside. The fire bowl is a part of that plan. S'Mores anyone?

Because today is cloudy and cool, I think I'll focus on housework today.
Weather:
Cloudy, slight breeze and at the time of this writing, (10:20 am) it's 54 degrees F