This Week In The Garden

I feel so bad that I haven't been updating my blog as much as I'd like to - with our chickens & garden rapidly growing, it's been hard to keep up! Things are finally starting to slow down a little, so you'll find me posting on here a lot more often :) This is what our raised bed filled with lettuce, cabbage, onions, turnips and carrots looks like as of today. It's so funny because I went outside this morning determined to get some nice shots with my camera, but the lens instantly fogged up because of how humid it is! So y'all will just have to enjoy some good quality iPhone pics! ;) Can you believe it was just a couple months ago that we started the seeds indoors? And today is the day we will need to harvest all of this green goodness! When we first had transplanted the lettuce and cabbage outdoors, I was so worried that they wouldn't survive. They looked so wilted and sad. But I'm happy to say that most, if not all, have completely thrived outside.

Here is a picture of our in-ground garden. So far, everything that we have planted is thriving and growing strong. We had a little incident a couple weeks ago with the cows getting into the garden. They stomped on a couple plants, but most have come back to life and are continuing to grow just fine. (Note to self: Always make sure ALL gates and fences are securely fastened and closed!) ;) This past weekend we also decided to expand the garden to make room for three rows of sweet corn. I absolutely cannot wait to harvest all of our homegrown veggies! Oh, and we also planted seven different types of peach and apple trees! I guess you could say we are really getting into this whole farming thing ;)

This morning as I was walking through the zucchini and watermelon patch, I noticed that the baby zucchinis are starting to develop. How cool is that! I know of an awesome zucchini recipe that was passed down from my grandma, to my mom, and down to me that I will have to share with you all later!

We have also managed to finish the chicken coop! We will need to build them laying boxes in the next couple months, but so far they are loving their new home. We made the chicken coop as safe from predators as we could, so I'm crossing my fingers that we don't loose any! *Knock on wood* Oh, and did I mention that we have a rooster?! Yep, that multi-colored one with the big red comb you see to the left. We thought "she" was a hen.... until "she" started crowing early in the mornings. Which is fine by me, because now we'll have fertilized eggs and possibly lots of baby chicks! :) Not pictured here: We also have 8 one month old chicks right now in the garage brooder. So far, that's a total of 17 chickens and counting!

I don't know about you, but I'd say the chickens have the best view on the farm! Does it get any more pasture raised than that? Their chicken run is attached to the coop, with full access in and out of the coop while we're not home. Since we have lots of hawks and other chicken predators where we live, we used reclaimed barn tin & chicken wire for the roofing - that way the chickens can enjoy the outside without having to worry about being attacked. And when we're working in the garden, we open the chicken run to the garden so that they can explore and eat all the nasty bugs :)

Cold Weather Calls For A Temporary Greenhouse!

We transplanted our lettuce into a raised bed a couple days ago and with the unexpected cold weather coming to our area tonight, we needed to build a temporary greenhouse. We used five pieces of PVC pipe for the arches over the garden bed, while our chocolate lab 'Coach' supervised our work.

After applying a wood stick to the top of the PVC pipes using zip ties, it was time to drape the plastic over the pipes. The plastic dome will create a greenhouse effect and will keep our lettuce warm and the unwanted deer out!

We ended up using two plastic sheets to cover each side of the PVC pipe dome. Then, we used a staple gun to staple the ends of the plastic sheets to the cedar box.

A peak inside the greenhouse....

The finished product! Again, this is a totally temporary greenhouse, so while it may not look fancy, it will serve its purpose cheaply and efficiently for the next week or two.


Stay tuned - we have a DIY Farmhouse Table coming to the blog!

Our Seedlings Are Growin' Up!

It's been a couple weeks since I've updated y'all on our growing seeds! I can't even begin to tell you how much of an AMAZING experience it has been watching these little green babies grow! In just 5 1/2 weeks, this is what our seedlings look like as of today. We've had tons of luck with these heirloom organic seeds (the quality of the seeds are extremely important to the success of your plants' growth) and have learned that using liquid fish fertilizer in the process has really helped these babies grow. Sometime this week we will have to transplant these little guys to the outside garden... Our dining room is starting to get a little crowded! ;)

Look at that lettuce!!! I mean seriously, it looks like it could be its own little salad :p

Here we have spinach to the left and okra to the right. *Mmmmm fried okra....* A country classic!

.... Broccoli & cauliflower....

And last but not least, cabbage! We planted tomato seeds in the pods to the left but didn't have much luck with those. We plan to give the tomato seeds another round next week indoors. Stay tuned in the next couple of days.... We have a couple surprise additions coming to the farm! ;)

Planting Seed Potatoes

This past weekend we planted seed potatoes in the ground! Since the seed potatoes come as a whole potato spud, we cut them into pieces and let them dry for a couple hours on the tailgate. While the little spuds were sunbathing, we managed to get our raised garden beds built too! From red potatoes to blue potatoes (yes, they are actually blue colored), we are hoping for a successful potato harvest sometime this May. We had never heard of blue potatoes until recently so we are BEYOND excited to see how they turn out! Even though they are technically called "blue potatoes", they are actually bright purple once you cut them in half (you can check out a picture of one on my Instagram)! Sometime this spring I will have to come up with a purple mashed potato recipe ;)

We plan to build more raised garden beds in the future, but for now we are sticking with three. Our original plan was to use the old reclaimed barn wood that we collected a couple weeks back, but we decided to use cedar wood instead -- rot resistant and most importantly, bug resistant! 

We had just enough seed potatoes to plant two rows worth! This leaves enough room for when we plant corn and okra. We are expecting a lot of rain this coming week, so hopefully we'll start to see our little spud sprouts here shortly. :)

Weekend Garden Prep

Our weekend consisted of hard work and digging in the dirt, but we made some great progress prepping our spring garden! With the help of Levi's dad, we were able to get a lot done. First, we determined where we wanted our garden to be located. We wanted it to be in a good draining location, but not too far from our house. Once we figured that out, we hooked the plow up to the tractor and got to work. After we got the soil plowed, we cleaned up all the rocks and grass clumps from the surface (talk about a workout... those grass clumps are heavier than you'd think!) Then, we switched the plow out for the garden harrow and started raking the soil free of debris.

While working the soil, we found a jaw bone from what looks to be from a cow. A little creepy if you ask me....

The soil is now ready for the tiller! Which is what we'll tackle next weekend.

Since we're planning to build raised garden beds next weekend, we decided to go ahead and get the materials now. Instead of spending money on lumber, we went down the road to a neighbor's old barn and re-purposed as much wood as possible. The old barn collapsed many years ago and our neighbor has kindly let us pull out as much lumber as we wanted. I guess it ends up helping both of us out! 

While we were collecting lumber, our beagle "Milo" decided to drop by and see what we were up to. Once we got what we needed, we packed up our trailer of wood and Milo caught a ride home with us :) Be sure to stop by next weekend, as we plan to till the garden and build our raised beds using reclaimed barn wood.

Sowing Seeds Indoors

I'm a total newbie when it comes to sowing seeds indoors, but it's been so fun watching the process of our seeds come to life - right in our kitchen! Since it's still too early in the year to be planting outdoors, we decided to follow the old Farmer's Almanac to determine which seeds we could start indoors.

First, we bought peat pellet trays from Lowe's (pictured above). After unwrapping the trays, each tray required ten cups of water. Ten cups sounds like a TON of water, but you'd be surprised how fast the peat pellets absorb that water. After waiting about ten minutes, the peat pellets were ready for seeds! My dad had sent us a two gallon bucket of various types of Heirloom Organics seeds, so that's what we chose to use for our primary seed. Where we live, in the month of February, you can sow: onion, lettuce, cabbage, celery, and leeks. We decided to sow Yellow Sweet Onion, Tatsoi & Dutch Flat Cabbage, Buttercrunch, Green Oak Leaf, and Parris Island (romaine) Lettuce.

Our little seedlings need LOTS of light, so Levi set up this shelving unit (in our dining room) with lights to imitate the sun. Since the sun gives off both warm and cool light, we added a 3,000k and 5,000k bulb to each fixture. With proper light, water and temperature, the lettuce sprouted within two days! Shortly after, the cabbage and onion started to sprout as well. Since the peat pellets don't have many nutrients, we are using an organic liquid fertilizer to make sure our babies grow strong :) This weekend we plan on prepping our garden area for transplanting in March... I'll be filling you guys in with the progress next week!