Homestead Overview

May 31, 2013

I have been updating how things have been going as I have made changes but here is an all-encompassing homestead update:

Main Back To Eden  garden:

(L to R and front to back: Row 1:tomato plants (too small to see), Row 2:pepper plants & lettuce & carrots, Row 3:cantaloupe & more lettuce & carrot plants with snaps planted at the end of row (not yet sprouted), Row 4;watermelon and then snaps by the chunnel, Row 5:nothing until snaps by the chunnel, Row 6: snaps &  carrots, Row 7:snaps & carrots, Row 8:zucchini, yellow squash, carrots, and a cantaloupe that has not sprouted yet.)

Side Garden:

(kale & lettuce…front row transplanted from greenhouses, middle & back rows transplanted from garden)

Corn boxes 1, 2, & 3

2×8 box:

(L to R: my daughter’s garden (running beans coming up); cucumbers; winter garden (most of the kale is done but some is hanging on); in the back i have a pot with more cucumbers ready to climp the netting (that i need to tie up better) and one that is waiting to be filled with something)

4×4 raised bed:

front to back: holes where kale was transplanted into shaded garden; lettuce; snaps coming up; kale hanging on – needs to be transplanted but i’m running out of room in my shaded garden! AND the dog is getting into it )

4×3 raised BTE bed:

(lots of bolting kale and some lettuce that is ready to bolt as well. i need to clean it out and go ahead and plant some summer plants)

Potato Patch:

Instead of trusting Paul (BTE guy) that I would not need to hill with mulch, I put more mulch on. When seeds are planted in mulch, they do great. However, when mulch is put on top of/around existing plants, it robs them of their nitrogen.

Some potato plants are dead, most are dying, only a few are doing well, AND (because they are now weakened) the bugs have arrived! We never had any/many bugs around the plants but now the potato bugs are EVERYWHERE! I obviously need to work on my patience 😦

We are also being overrun by bermuda grass in this garden. The bane of my existence.  It may be a bust this year. However, I am making some manure tea right now so maybe they’ll perk up. I know it is not great for root crops but I am just going to put on a little bit to try to bring them back to life.

Raspberries:

(doing really well! I can’t remember if I bought everbearing or not so unsure if we will get a harvest this fall or not.)

Chickens:

They’re getting big! and are starting to roost! which means I can now collect their poop (scrape off the table under the roost) to make lots of fertilizer (little bit of poop to lots of water – let steep (stir often) for a week before using so it doesn’t burn the plants)!

That’s a basic overview of what’s going on around here! Things are constantly changing! I’ll continue to update 🙂

I’m linking up to Simple Lives Thursday!

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