Sunday, March 29, 2009

Starting seeds

Pots of soil We started our tomatoes and peppers today! Yay for the start of the gardening season! The plan is to try to have them out by the beginning of June this year to try to be able to harvest more of the tomatoes before the first frost. We've also cut back to 30 tomatoes instead of the 60 the we planted last year.

We've planted:

  • 12 Rose (organic/indeterminate)
  • 12 Roma VF (determinate)
  • 8 Oregon Spring (organic/determinate)
  • 16 Ace Hybrid Bell Peppers
  • 8 Early Jalapeno (organic)
  • 4 Joe's Long Cayenne

Pots of soil with seeds

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Birds and the bees

Another day, another farm visit. We visited Beth and Peter to get a chance to meet their chickens as well as talk about their experiences with beekeeping. We're seriously considering adding bees next year and were really excited to get the chance to talk to them in person about their experiences. It was a dreary rainy day, but we still a ton of fun! They've previously given us some of their honey and it is truly wonderful stuff!

Beth's chickens
Beth and Peter's chickens on a rainy day

Beth's chickens
Beth and Peter's beehives

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Saturday, March 28, 2009

Visiting friends' chickens

We decided to try to tour as many different coops as we could to try to get some ideas for coop setups and validate what we're trying to do. We visited two different setups today and got to see a maple syrup evaporator while we were at it!

Ed and Sarah's chickens
Ed and Sarah's chickens

Ed and Sarah's chickens
Dave's maple syrup evaporator

Ed and Sarah's chickens
Mmmm... maple syrup!

Ed and Sarah's chickens
Dave and one of his hens

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Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Changes in the raised beds..

We've got big new plans for the raised beds this year! We're moving all of the vegetables down to the big garden in the field and converting the beds to perennials. The first bed will be next year's garlic bed (instead growing them in the back flower garden), then asparagus (moving it out of the back flower garden), then low bush (and two mid-bush) blueberries, then cranberries, and finally strawberries. I recently cleaned out the hallway and one of the goat stalls in the barn and mulched the aisles and fertilized what will be the cranberry bed. I'm also going to take all of the soil out of the strawberry bed and compost it for a few years since it's most recently had peppers and tomatoes in it and then bring in new soil, compost, and composted goat manure.

Also, we've settled on a site for our new chicken coop, it's going to be in the back "courtyard" to the side of the clump of maples. We're finalizing coop plans and getting materials ordered for construction. We're hoping to have a very nice home in place for our 12 Dominique pullets and 1 Dominique cockerel by the time they arrive!

Raised beds
Freshly mulched beds.

Raised bed for strawberries
Bed with compost awaiting new cranberry plants.

Everyone in the clean barn
Me, Max, Rox and the goats in the (partially) clean barn.

Site of the new chicken coop
Future home of our new chicken coop.

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