a tour

Potato bed 1

Potato bed 2

Strawberry bed

Asparagus and basil

Tomati

compost bed (April and May)

Fallow now, will be compost (june-July)

Lettuce for seed, fallow, some strawberries, and will be compost (August,September, and October)

Chicken tractor over a fallow bed

Carrots, summer squash, and bush beans

Okra, bush beans, and summer squash

Bulb onions

Grass — will be 5 more beds by the end of June

Lettuce, bunching onions, cucumbers

Wildflowers,chamomile, bunching onions, purple coneflower, and lemon balm

Radish, arugula, spinach, kale, chard, peas

melons

Rhubarb and melons

mint

Not shown: chickens, rabbits, raspberries, currants, blueberries, blackberries, and hoop house

 

oops

Things got so busy here on the ‘stead, that I forgot to update the blog.  Oops!

The garden is now 1600 square feet of actual planting space.  There are seedlings in the hoop house just waiting for a spot in a new bed.

The chicks are growing and growing.  We can now tell boys from girls.  It is hard to get an accurate count because they don’t stand still, but we have 5-7 girls and the rest are boys.  The first chicken tractor is complete and we hope to move some boys in this weekend.

We lost more rabbits.  The supplier is just not trustworthy so we’re waiting for a friend to have bunnies late this summer and then I will get another girl.  One girl and one boy are still (fingers crossed)  doing well.

Hmm  . . . I guess that is a good start.  I’ll take some pictures this weekend so you can see all the growth!  It is amazing this time of year.

 

April 22, 2013

Today I planted in the garden:  purple coneflower, roman chamomle, lemon balm,  lolla rosso lettuce, black seeded simpson lettuce, oak leaf lettuce, bunching onions, and wildflowers.

I also found a few strawberry daughters in beds where they should not be.  So I’ve been transplanting those all into proper bed.  It is full now.  Guess we’ll have to start another one soon.

In the hoop house:  tomatoes, hot peppers, and basil.

Chicks are in the “boys” coop.  It is small (but so are they right now), but pretty tight.  They have a nice small yard to learn to run, scratch, and catch bugs.  Whoohoo!!

 

a very busy weekend

We got so much done last weekend.  It was an amazing Saturday!

We moved 200 cubic feet of compost into a new compost bed.  Then started a brand new compost bed for this year.

We planted 100 square feet of strawberries, 100 square feet of asparagus, 200 square feet of mixed radises, spinach, kale, chard, arugula, peas.   We also planted 4 currant bushes and 2 raspberry canes.  We weeded and mulched the rhubarb bed.  Then we weeded 2 more 100 square foot beds.

Kelly double-dug a 100 square foot bed.   Then he cut the grass.

I got the rabbit cages cleaned out and added all that wonderful manure to the compost bed.

 

the rabbit house

Here are some pictures of our rabbit house.  It is basically a lean-to that is not attached to the shed.  The roof of the rabbit house is under the roof of the shed and that helps keep them dry.  The wall of the shed is far enough back that urine won’t soak through onto it, but close enough to keep the wind and rain off the rabbits.

We have a nice manure collection system.  Straw in rubbermaid totes that are placed under the cages on the right.  We still need to finish that part of the left side.  Each week we’ll empty the totes into the compost beds.

Our rabbits are:  Willow (mini-lop female), Laurel (mini-Rex female), Holly (Rex female) and Linden (Rex male).

the chicks at 1 week

and then there was 1

A sad evening here on the homestead.  My little rabbit girls got sick and two died.  I called the place where we got them and were told that 80% of their litter had died or were dying.  So big-time breeder fail!  It was heartbreaking.

We tried everything we knew to do and still lost the 2.  This afternoon we received 2 news ones:  lops instead of Rex.  Hannah will be happy.  She’s always been fond of lops!  These are also older and bigger.  They were vet checked and wormed appropriately.

Therefore I am hopeful.  Hopeful, but still worried.