Between working from home, keeping the lawn mowed, taking care of bottle calves, raising an infant and trying to plant the garden – we’re way too busy.
It was another productive week on the farm that moved way too fast.
We expected a ton of rain that never happened. We’ve bridged the gap by hauling buckets of water from the pond up to the trees and strawberries. The garden is getting watered from the line that runs to the tool shed – but that’s expensive. Last month, we were notified that a break in the line was leaking more than 1,000 gallons per minute. We’ve had it shut off ever since, but need to kick it on if we’re watering plants. It’s pretty inefficient to say the very least.
We’ve fallen into a strange rhythm of mowing the yard in chunks. The orchard, pond and gardens get done in one big swoop. Then, usually, the backyard and bottoms toward the pastures. Finally, the pasture-side front yard. Somewhere in between it all, the big hills in the very front yard get mowed. They’re extremely wet pretty much all of the time, so it’s a bit of a pain. We’re seriously considering allocating that whole area for pollinators CRP in the next year. We’ll see.
The entire garden is finally planted as of today. We got the very last of the Three Sisters into the ground along with all of the cut flower bulbs and seeds on the east side of things. I ordered a small ton of poppies. I genuinely didn’t realize I’d done that. Super pumped to see what comes up!
The produce is doing great so far. We have a few rows where greens may need some replacements. I think there is an area or two that was allocated for cabbage that didn’t get much, so we’ll have to address that. Peppers still aren’t in, but we have tons of healthy starts so I’m hoping tomorrow will allow for those to be complete. A couple of make-shift trellises and we should be in business!
The asparagus is kicking butt. We’ve been picking about 3-4 meals worth each week for the past couple of weeks. Everyone in the family is slowly getting a handful for dinner. So far, the feedback has been great! I’m really looking forward to being able to pass along the garden’s goods all summer. These plants can’t start producing fast enough!