They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit.
Monday the 31st was our first big tomato harvest, and our last big bean harvest. Winnie helps pick beans, and conversates the whole time. "Daddy, why are you so tall?" "Because I started growing before you." "Daddy, what number are you old?" "I am 41." "Daddy, you are going to die." Pauses thoughtfully. "You are… Continue reading First Big Tomato Harvest
Not everything can be woodworking around here. There are too many other things that need to be done. For instance the raspberries are coming on fast, And when we checked on the blackberries, some of them were ripening. They always ripen from the end of the branch first. In every cluster the most distal berry… Continue reading Garden and Orchard Update.
This really should have been done a month ago, back when the squashes and maters went in the ground. But it didn't. Some years are like that. It took until June Something-or-other even to get Bed 2 weeded this year. Once the weeds were pulled out then we had to mound it up, throwing the… Continue reading Trellising.
After the beans and peas planting, it was a couple of days before any of us got to the farm. Mommy and Ellie flew to Virginia and North Carolina for Ellie's 3rd grade trip. The visited Roanoke, Jamestown, and Williamsburg. Ellie wasn't sure about it at first because she didn't want to be the only… Continue reading Elevated Irrigation
Let's see, what day was this. May 19th, a Tuesday. This was the day we got around to finishing the legumes row. The older girls helped out at the beginning by pulling out all the weeds to feed to the ruminants. Then I got on with the digging. As with row 1, the Tomato/cucurbit row,… Continue reading Beans and Peas
Monday Morning during chores I noticed this. Actually, I heard it from twenty feet away. It sounded like a toilet flushing. When I went to look, I saw water bubbling up out of the ground. I thought, "Dang it. I have to do a pipe repair today." But first, breakfast. Evie had made pound cake… Continue reading Fixing Leaks and T-Posts in the Garden
I used to call them taters. Now I call them Tato's. 'Cause that's what Winnie calls them. Monday was the day to plant them. It was actually a bit late, by over a month. Unfortunately, it has just been that kind fo a gardening year. Everything has been getting pushed back and delayed by all… Continue reading First Round of Tato’s
I have so many pictures backed up, waiting for get put into a blog. I have given up on a detailed update on all of it, but as this blog is our primary record keeping mechanism (for big picture stuff, anyway) they still need to get updated. Good Friday (April 3rd) planted two new apple… Continue reading Three Week Update Post
It's getting that time of year again! Time to plant the garden. We planted a dozen or so rutabaga last week, and this week we are starting the peas. On the crop rotation plan (yes, there is one) they are going to be in row four this year, so the first task was: Cleanup on… Continue reading Cleanup on Row Four
We are trying a new garden strategy this year. We are going for staggered plantings of a lot of our favorites, particularly the brassicas. We have had great success with growing them, thus far, but not great success with harvesting and using them on time. When you have 12 heads of cabbage all coming ripe… Continue reading Seed Starting 2026: Part 1
Little Farm in the Big City 