May and June Update
The May and June updates slipped by and we figured before July was over we should get a post logged. Hopefully we can get into the habit of posting a weekly update, at least during the summer. Right now there just isn’t enough time in the day during the summer to get this out, but once a week sounds possible. While we hope this interests our family and lets them know what we’re up to, it’s also a partial record of our progress. So since it’s raining here so we’ll get this posted.
Unpacking and Organization
Well since I returned home in May we jumped into cleaning up and unpacking. As most of you know Beth moved into the house around the end of October and unpacked just the essentials to get by with the help of her family who live here. When I came home on vacation in December we unpacked a little bit more, but the bulk stayed in the garages. We still have a good amount of our home goods packed and it looks like it won’t be unpacked until we get some furniture with storage space.
The undertaking second to unpacking has been reorganization of the stuff. We have stuff stored between a three and a two car garage, a two story garden shed and a barn. Much of what we did was to take inventory of what we have, figure out what were going to move into the house, and then reorganize the space so we could make use of the building for its intended purpose. Once we got the garden shed organized we made some head way on the two car garage, and with a visit from my Mom and Dad and youngest son, and their help, we were able to get to the three car garage, which is were the bulk of our stuff is and where my shop is located.
Garden
For the first part of May we experienced almost nine straight days of rain, which made it almost impossible to get in a new garden. By the end of the second week I was able to rent a tiller to turn over the top layer and get some peat and top soil into our clay soil. We decided that we would put our garden in to the plot the folks we purchased the house from had theirs because the ground had been worked a little and was in good spot. Unfortunately much of what they had put in had been absorbed by the clay and the ground didn’t offer anything. But it is still a good site and we plan to make this our garden site.
Once I got the area tilled I took a large plastic tarp we used to protect our fire wood and laid it across the area to burn off the grass and weeds that was in the soil. After a week or so we headed to the farmers market in Athens to get our plants. Here’s a list of what we planted between May 22nd and 25th:
About week after we got everything in the ground we had two days of heavy rain and it washed away all of the carrots, spinach, peppers, and radishes. The tomatoes got off to a slow start but after some mulching are doing well. The lettuce we bought was doing well but after the rain ended we got a couple of really hot days and next thing you know the plants bolted. So we only got a couple of cuts from them. The Swiss chard is hanging in there, but I’m going to have read up on lettuce because I’m not sure I planted it correctly.
We went to the big hardware store in town and bought some mature bell peppers to replace the seeded ones we lost and they are doing very well.
All of the flowers are doing great.
We lost all the snap peas, two of the cabbage heads and all of the broccoli.
In June I planted the second plot of corn by seed (8 rows, 8 plants), which is doing very well. Also I planted 9 rows, 10 plants of bush beans by seed and that’s doing well too.
Around the house Beth has been focusing in our flower gardens, which became overrun with weeds in our absence. She started this spring cleaning and pruning back the growth and it's coming in nicely. Next spring we’ll have better luck now that we know what plants are perennials and those are just weeds. Beth also cuts the lawn, which has been looking great all season.
The Fields
We have been hitting the fields pretty hard getting a ton of dead fall that lies along the edge off and burned and then the cutting of the grass and woody growth. Since we don’t have any livestock on the paddocks yet we have been cutting it to mimic grazing rotation.
Much the farm had been cut for hay in the past by the last two owners without anything being put back into the ground. This has caused the soil to become weak and without any humus, so for the last three years Beth and I have been cutting it and letting the grass fall back to the ground. While this isn’t the end all, it has and will help until we get our sheep on there.
I'll end here and pick up with the rest of the goings on in a new post.
Unpacking and Organization
Well since I returned home in May we jumped into cleaning up and unpacking. As most of you know Beth moved into the house around the end of October and unpacked just the essentials to get by with the help of her family who live here. When I came home on vacation in December we unpacked a little bit more, but the bulk stayed in the garages. We still have a good amount of our home goods packed and it looks like it won’t be unpacked until we get some furniture with storage space.
The undertaking second to unpacking has been reorganization of the stuff. We have stuff stored between a three and a two car garage, a two story garden shed and a barn. Much of what we did was to take inventory of what we have, figure out what were going to move into the house, and then reorganize the space so we could make use of the building for its intended purpose. Once we got the garden shed organized we made some head way on the two car garage, and with a visit from my Mom and Dad and youngest son, and their help, we were able to get to the three car garage, which is were the bulk of our stuff is and where my shop is located.
Garden
For the first part of May we experienced almost nine straight days of rain, which made it almost impossible to get in a new garden. By the end of the second week I was able to rent a tiller to turn over the top layer and get some peat and top soil into our clay soil. We decided that we would put our garden in to the plot the folks we purchased the house from had theirs because the ground had been worked a little and was in good spot. Unfortunately much of what they had put in had been absorbed by the clay and the ground didn’t offer anything. But it is still a good site and we plan to make this our garden site.
Once I got the area tilled I took a large plastic tarp we used to protect our fire wood and laid it across the area to burn off the grass and weeds that was in the soil. After a week or so we headed to the farmers market in Athens to get our plants. Here’s a list of what we planted between May 22nd and 25th:
1 row, 6 plants Better Boy Tomatoes (Farmer’s Market (FM) purchase)
1 row, 6 plants, Cherry tomatoes (FM purchase)
1 row, 6 plants, Grape tomatoes (FM purchase) (We thought we were buying Roma’s but they weren’t marked correctly.)
3 rows, carrots, planted along side the tomatoes (seed)
1 row, marigolds flowers (seed)
1 row, 6 plants, leaf lettuce (FM purchase)
3 rows, Baby Spinach (seed)
3 rows, Swiss chard (seed)
3 rows, Baby Spinach (seed)
1 row, 6 plants, (unknown hot pepper) (FM purchase) (We thought we were buying bell pepper plants, which wasn’t case.)
1 row, yellow Bell peppers (seed)
1 row, red bell peppers (seed)
1 row, Zinnia flowers
2 rows, white cabbage (FM purchase)
6 rows, snap peas (seed)
2 plants, Summer squash (seed)
2 plants, Zucchini (seed)
9 rows, 8 plants, Sweet Corn (seed)
8 plants, cucumbers, planted with the corn (FM purchase)
2 rows, 8 plants, broccoli, (FM purchase)
3 rows, red radishes, planted along side the broccoli, (seed)
About week after we got everything in the ground we had two days of heavy rain and it washed away all of the carrots, spinach, peppers, and radishes. The tomatoes got off to a slow start but after some mulching are doing well. The lettuce we bought was doing well but after the rain ended we got a couple of really hot days and next thing you know the plants bolted. So we only got a couple of cuts from them. The Swiss chard is hanging in there, but I’m going to have read up on lettuce because I’m not sure I planted it correctly.
We went to the big hardware store in town and bought some mature bell peppers to replace the seeded ones we lost and they are doing very well.
All of the flowers are doing great.
We lost all the snap peas, two of the cabbage heads and all of the broccoli.
In June I planted the second plot of corn by seed (8 rows, 8 plants), which is doing very well. Also I planted 9 rows, 10 plants of bush beans by seed and that’s doing well too.
Around the house Beth has been focusing in our flower gardens, which became overrun with weeds in our absence. She started this spring cleaning and pruning back the growth and it's coming in nicely. Next spring we’ll have better luck now that we know what plants are perennials and those are just weeds. Beth also cuts the lawn, which has been looking great all season.
The Fields
We have been hitting the fields pretty hard getting a ton of dead fall that lies along the edge off and burned and then the cutting of the grass and woody growth. Since we don’t have any livestock on the paddocks yet we have been cutting it to mimic grazing rotation.
Much the farm had been cut for hay in the past by the last two owners without anything being put back into the ground. This has caused the soil to become weak and without any humus, so for the last three years Beth and I have been cutting it and letting the grass fall back to the ground. While this isn’t the end all, it has and will help until we get our sheep on there.
I'll end here and pick up with the rest of the goings on in a new post.
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