Whew! It feels like it’s been forever since I’ve actually sat down and checked in on the blog. We’ve been so busy… every time we think it couldn’t get any busier or any more exciting than it does and just when we think we might have a chance to rest a bit something else happens. We’ve also had some appointments, birthdays, and special dances thrown in too!

Little miss enjoying the wind and making shadow friends!

Our garden project is really taking shape now although it’s not anywhere close to being finished… this is definitely going to be a multiphase project… lol. The kids haven’t officially started their garden project yet but we are hoping to start that this week… hopefully! We will be experimenting with some different things we have around the house and trying to repurpose a few things just to help them get creative with some repurposing ideas.

CLICK HERE (AFTER APRIL 13th) TO SEE AN UPDATE ON OUR GARDEN!

This was the plan that I thought I was going with but things changed a little bit.

These are some of the inspirational pictures that they have found… not sure if we can pull this off but we can certainly try!

In addition to the new garden area, we have also started a ‘goat garden row’ along the fence to the goat pasture and we are working on a ‘chicken garden’ as well. We’ve added some cattle panels to the older beds… these may be transformed into a greenhouse… not sure yet.

We did get some deer netting in place around the previous beds and the ‘banana grove’. This has helped to keep the free-ranging chickens and crazy squirrels out of the beds and keeps the juvenile geese in that garden area. They work great for weed and pest control! We are also incubating some geese eggs from our adult geese and she has a pile of eggs under her so we may be outnumbered by geese soon!

Our turkeys have started laying as well so we are collecting some of those to try incubating. We had planned to let the hen hatch them but she has been eating them so that won’t work.

I think I’ve shoveled more dirt and mulch in the past week than I have during the past 10 years! It was worth it though to see the beds coming together and to watch the faces of the kiddos when they can see the plan coming together. We’ve got a ton of plants started and we have planted a few seeds here and there. We will be attempting a three-sisters garden concept in one of the areas of the new garden… it may be more than ‘3 sisters’ though… lol.

Our fruit trees have increased and some of last year’s trees have fruits on them already… so much to look forward to! We’ve recently added over 20 more different fruiting trees, bushes, and plants to these perennial beds. We’ve also divided up some of the things like the lemongrass to spread them around other areas. These areas are becoming more guilds and hopefully will evolve into a ‘food forest’ type of system. It probably could be called a food forest now but we have reached my level of food production for me to call it that yet.

Just yesterday I received a package of 100+ cuttings for elderberry, willow, Paw Paw, jostaberry, currants, and comfrey from Edible Acres... they look pretty good and I’m anxious to get these in the ground today!

Then after we picked those up at the Post Office we had to run a few more errands. We stopped at the local Tractor Supply and we found a couple more trees and plants there that we hadn’t seen anywhere else so we picked up some more bare-root peach trees, flowers, rhubarb, and some nut trees. The trees and plants are patiently waiting for me in our trusty blue wagon… this little wagon has been well worth its weight in gold around here!

Hmmm… there is so much I could tell you about our garden that I just can’t quite remember all that I had planned to update on or even what I have forgotten… my brain has been in overdrive the past few days and things are quite jumbled as I keep coming up with new ideas of ways to arrange our little property. I am pretty much obsessed with it right now and I would be out there after dark if I had lights… since I don’t have lights I just dream about it and dream about the smiles on the kids’ faces when they are out there playing in the dirt and counting the butterflies and dragonflies.

Anyway… we are expecting a lot of rain in the next few days so we have a lot of planting to get finished before then. The kids are really wanting to get their garden area planted as well and they have been begging for me to find some ‘really hot’ pepper plants for them to try… we already have a couple of ghost peppers so I’m not sure how much hotter they think they want!

Have a blessed week!

P.S.

I know I mentioned the SeedTime program before and I love a lot of the functions that it has but I wasn’t able to use it on my phone so I’ve been using the Gardenate app to keep track of what I’ve planted and where… at least I’m trying to keep track but sometimes I do forget.

Here are a few updated pics:

We did end up finding a couple of really HOT peppers… the Chocolate Ghost Pepper and Caribbean Red Hot Pepper?… these have been planted in the perennial bed which is off-limits to kids and hopefully the animals.

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