The Business

Ok all, I've been yammering on for a while now about all my emotional revelations and you are probably all ready for me to move on.  Me too!  I've been itching to talk gardening and house projects for some time now.  I keep feeling like I don't have that much to report back on, but I reminded myself today that I have actually learned a ton in the last couple of months about gardening and farm-like topics.  So I'm going to presume that some of you know as little as I did (and still do) and might actually find some of these things interesting or helpful.

Number one....Make a plan.  Every book you will ever pick up about farming or gardening or homesteading will start with the importance of an outline, or a business plan.  It's the first chapter in literally every book we own on the subjects (which is a lot).  So naturally, we made no plan.  We talked about plans, we discussed the importance of plans, we even half formulated many different ones, but we definitely did not solidify one concrete plan.  In hindsight (and foresight), this was a poor choice.

This is our lion statue. Yeah we have a lion statue, he thinks we should have planned better too.

Prepping a Garden Plot

We had endless options on our land, for where we should establish a garden....we could have done one very large garden, multiple small ones in different locations, raised beds for our salad greens and herbs and row crops for our veggies, or we could have a small personal garden and then establish our "farm garden" elsewhere that would be for larger scale production and eventual income generation.  Instead, a friend volunteered to come rototill our garden plot before we had really decided how we wanted things laid out, so I made a snap decision which always goes really well.  We tilled three different areas, one small 5x16' bed that had been tilled in years past but hadn't been used for probably a couple years, a medium 30x30'ish bed that also seemed to have a good history, and a large 40x75' bed that had never been tilled before and was all sod.
   
Things I've learned:

• Tilling a plot that is currently grass is really hard.  It will likely need to be tilled a few times, have any chunks of sod removed by hand, and its probably best to plant a cover crop at first to help develop healthy soil.  Buckwheat grows well up here and supposedly has a seed to till time of about 4-6 weeks so its a good one to use if you want to use the plot the second half of the summer.  Its also good for bees.  Hubs tells me white clover is what he used in Colorado as a strong reliable cover crop because buckwheat didn't grow as well there.
• If you are going to take the time to send soil samples (which you should), you should take them correctly, and then actually do something with the results.  Figure out before you plant, what type of soil amendment is needed, stock up on an adequate amount of compost and work it into the soil.
• Expect a massive amount of weeds with a freshly tilled plot.  A lot of the ruffage that gets tilled into the soil is not dead and can reroot, or seed new plants.  Another reason to till a couple of times before planting.
• I keep saying tilling because that's what we did, but apparently tilling is actually not the best way to establish a garden plot.  It's the fastest for sure, but for longevity and health, it seems that people encourage solarizing your desired plot. This is a process of covering your plot with clear plastic directly on the ground to create a mini greenhouse effect on the grass underneath it.  Eventually the grass will die out and compost into the earth.  Apparently tilling can bring up bacteria and disease that is deeper in the soil and can effect your plants.

Water

Next is the issue of watering.  Again, no plan.  We have multiple outdoor water spigots so we figured we would either hook up a surface hose to a rainbow sprinkler or a hose to PVC tubing running the width of each bed and extend drip tubing from there.  But then the organic fruit tree company up here had a massive sale, so naturally I went and bought 10 trees, which I had to immediately put in the ground....with no preset watering system in place.  Suuure we can hand water for an indefinite period of time before we figure it out. So we got all of our trees in the ground and gave them their initial water.  After a few days of handwatering we had the time to turn on the outdoor water spigots, so we did, and found that the spigot closest to the trees had severed far underground and was now just a rusty old pipe sticking up out of the earth.  The water, of course, still flows but now just seeps into the earth in the vague area of the spigot and even after digging down 8 feet, all we see is wet earth. Awesome.

So, here we are nearing July and we are still hand watering.

Things I've learned:

• Really, truly, seriously, just have your water set up before you put things in the ground. Like, really.
• Rainbow sprinklers (the oscillating ones that shoot up into the air), are not seen as The Devil here in Maine like they are in Colorado.  Most people are on a well system and water actually exists here (and living here is not like sitting inside of an oven), so water waste is less of an issue. 
• That being said, it is more conscientious to use a drip irrigation system, it generally takes less water to achieve the same end and plants like it better.
• Many plants, particularly leafy plants do not like water coming from above, as it predisposes them to molds and certain bacterial and viral transmission.  I am a bit of a skeptic on this because up until the quite modern introduction of drip irrigation, all plants were watered from above (the sky). But hubs is adamant, and he's a smarty pants, so I'm sure its true.

Companion Planting

Then there is the whole ordeal about where do I plant things?  How do I plan out my garden space? (Again with the planning- this is really going to be an adjustment for an antiplanner such as myself).  It is best to use the practice of companion planting, i.e. putting plants near each other that help keep bugs off the other plants, or if they make a byproduct that is helpful for the other plant's growth, or planting things far away from each other if they both degrade the same element in the soil.  So our "plan" for this was to put our blackberries, strawberries, bush beans and other legumes, and chives together in our medium sized plot because they all compliment each other nicely.  Then we would do row crops for our main veggie garden in our large plot (tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, etc).  But again, we accidentally bought 10 more berry bushes before veggie planting time and put them in our large bed because they need damp, acidic soil and that location fit the bill.  So we planted them in our very large bed and let the rest grow back into sod (Not on purpose....see section one on the importance of prepping your soil.  We will be solarizing that plot around the berries starting next week). 

Sweet blueberries right? Check out the weeds behind it...
So now we had a very small bed (already dedicated to greens and flowers) and a medium sized bed already filled with berries that we were going to need to plant everything in, regardless of companionship.  Now we have a very busy garden bed that is filled with equal parts noncomplimentary vegetables/berries, and weeds.

Things I've learned:

• Plan your cover crop (either in the first half of summer or at the end of the summer) to compliment whatever crop was growing there.  Many plants deplete certain compounds in the soil, so planting cover crops that "fix" or replenish those compounds will set you up for success on your next planting.
• Its too soon to tell whether or not our noncompanion way of planting will have effects on our plants or not.....and probably impossible to attribute any successes or failures to companion planting alone, but I will keep you posted as things begin to grow...or die.
• Mother Earth News is a great resource for gardening, here is a link to their companion planting guide.

Farm name time!!

We need your help in choosing a name!  Here are some ideas.....

1) Firefly farm- pays tribute to our sparkly friends and the magic that comes with the rebirth and growth of spring and summer

2) Tilted Barn Farm- if you come to our house you will understand the inspiration for that.

3) Halcyon Farm- halcyon has two definitions that inspire the name

          1) Denoting a period of time in the past that was idyllically happy and peaceful.

           2) A mythical bird said by ancient writers to breed in a nest floating at sea at the winter solstice, charming the wind and waves into calm.

4) Hyggelig Farm- a Danish word that means...

1. nice, friendly
2. cozy, comfortable, snug
3. awesome
4. homey

Please vote!! Leave your vote in the comments!

Just put your shovel in the dirt

John, Maggie and I went to the Wayne Yacht Club today.  It sounds like that should be a joke, but its not.  Wayne has the oldest lake based yacht club in the country....maybe just the state, I don't remember, but Maine is big, so either way you should be impressed.  It's actually a brilliant place, tucked away in a wooded cove; its a beautiful old house with a wrap around screen porch that overlooks the beach and the lake where there are many boats on moorings, floating in the waves, just in front of the setting sun, waiting patiently for their next ride. 

We walked there (because the beach is just down a dead end road out of the center of town...this town is so cool.) after getting afternoon ice cream to celebrate the amazing weather and our moderate amount of productivity today.  You see, for the last few weeks we have done an impeccable job of accomplishing very close to nothing.  First it was still too cold to plant, then it rained for a week, then I went to Colorado for a week, then it rained for a few more days, and then all of a sudden we were a few weeks late to planting.  John and I have, in fact, had a lot going on, but there has also been, at least from my end, a vague sense that this whole thing is quite daunting and if I just drag my feet for one more day then surely I'll gain enough clarity to plunge in full steam ahead. Right?  Let me expand...

Maggie's latest catch phrase is "I'll do it".  She says it for everything, whether I say "Do you want me to put your socks on?' or 'I'm going to build a to-scale replica of The Gaudi Cathedral using individual grains of sand' (I've never uttered those words....that's a dramatization), the response is always "No, I'll do it."   But she doesn't say it in an empowering 'We Can Do It' feminist power kind of tone, she says it in this really elongated whine, as if shes already annoyed at the task that she's volunteering for.  It's as if she is so excited about her recently acquired ability to do things on her own that she wants to continue to be industrious, and at the same time is already exhausted by how difficult she knows its going to be.  And I totally get that.  I have somehow gotten stuck in this rather dampened reality where I still have the desire to do all of these really wonderful and important things but can't seem to find the will to make it happen.

We are also at a precipice, right now, where we can either hold steady and nurture the few things we have started and probably maintain some semblance of calm in our lives, or we can step into the next step of adding the full fledged garden that I had envisioned.  If we do the latter, it will likely be surrounded by that very exciting but exhausting hurricane of tasks that leaves you invigorated with meaningful activities but not a free moment in sight to sit and breathe.  Do we want that? Absolutely. Are we ready for that? Hard to say.  For those of you garden friendly folk out there reading this and thinking 'What is wrong with you people, its June 9th, and you don't know what you're doing with your garden??'  My response to you is....'We live in Maine, so yes, that is correct.'

So during one of Maggie's nap times (my greatest time of conflict as it is literally the only time of day to do something efficiently and also the only time of day to sit down) I was feeling particularly bad about my lack of accomplishment.  So I walked out to the yard and looked at the garden....there it was.  And I looked at the fruit trees, yup those were there too.  And I looked at the barn, and I'll be damned that was there too.  But I wasn't inspired by any of them to do all of the things they were begging me to do.  But I needed to heed their desperate pleas for attention so I grabbed a shovel.  I figured I could dig up a couple of sod patches that had reestablished themselves in the garden.  It took me a good five minutes of leaning on my shovel, making a plan (procrastinating), and lamenting the task, before I actually put my shovel in the dirt.  But then I did.  And I immediately felt tired.  But then I picked it up and dug it in a few more times, enough to make some dust fly and I felt it settle on my hands and forearms as I worked.  I love that feeling.  And so I began digging with more and more vigor until I was feverishly digging and turning over the dirt feeling like I had to do 3 weeks worth of farm work in the next hour while Maggie was asleep.  Since then we have retilled and weeded both gardens, cleaned out the chicken coop and refilled it with clean shavings, built chicken wire cages for the remaining fruit trees, built a shade hut for the chickens, spread hay around all the fruit trees and berries, planted squash, cucumbers and tomatoes, built a trellis for the squash and cukes, and harvested enough rhubarb for everyone in Wayne to have a rhubarb pie (thats only a slight exaggeration).

Point is....when you are feeling lazy, just put the shovel in the dirt...the rest will follow.

That being said, however, as I was putting the chickens to bed the other night (sometimes they are not smart enough to go inside before it gets dark and then they can't find the ramp and end up huddled in a mass outside), I was walking back from the barn and I saw my first firefly of the season.  I'm not sure which is more magical, a field full of them or the first, single firefly blinking defiantly against the still chilly nights.  When I was down in the druthers this winter, a friend of mine said so beautifully, 'hang on my dear, you'll have fireflies soon'.  She, of course, didn't know how much of an emotional connection I have to fireflies and how I truly feel that they are a tiny slice of magic remaining in this crazy world.  So I stood and watched the firefly with total wonder, and I thought to myself....'You know what? Who cares if I don't have rows and rows of exotic vegetable varieties growing in an adorable and sustainably built garden. Just who cares.  That's what they have CSA's for.  And if I'm too busy watching my daughter pick flowers or roll down the hill, or watching this firefly blink around the yard, then so be it.'  So I'm trying to simply be with what is, nurture all that we have, continue to pick up the shovel and dig it in, but also to put it down if what truly feeds the soul in a given moment is to stare at all this beauty around me.

I felt that more than ever tonight as I was driving home, alone in my car, through the back roads from my parents' house to our house.  I was blasting the song 'Emmylou' by First Aid Kit (if you haven't heard it you must stop reading immediately and go play it), watching the sun slip slowly down behind the rolling hills, and feeling so much life and love in my body that it almost physically hurt.  There is a pulse out here, you can't help but be more connected to the world around you, the dirt beneath your feet.  For years I have found refuge and strength in the mountains, but today I felt that same soul filling energy just by existing in the place that I live.  And for that I will always consider myself beyond lucky.

 One eighth of the harvested rhubarb...

 Experimenting with training the squash plants and cukes up over the trellis tunnel while planting lettuce underneath to sit in the shade of the other plants....we'll see.

Guess whose a rooster....These guys are about 10 and 11 weeks old now and they have been pretty easy to sex for a couple weeks now.  We have 4 roosters, not a bad ratio! We did have one casualty, chicken dug its way out of the run straight into the jaws of our canine beast :(  That event was followed by tears and some serious fence reinforcements.

 Rhubarb pie! Stay tuned for the recipe (I'm writing this in bed and can't be bothered to get up and get it).  And what is this baked log looking thing???  Don't you worry about that, recipe coming for that too, but just know that the main ingredient is butter...get excited.