Nothing sets the tone of the starting the season like something already green and already growing. Garlic is awesome for this.
600 bulbs, 4200 cloves
A greenhouse to cover the well head
With a hand pump being our only access to water, we’re taking extra precautions to ensure it will survive the tough winters we get. While technically not necessary for the pump we got, it can only help and should also improve the chore of gathering water. And we get a greenhouse out of it 🙂
I like the idea of combining under one roof, 2 functions where freezing is non-desirable, water and growing plants. Our dream is to build a bigger greenhouse down the road and maybe even heat it. Water for the plants would be right where it’s needed and benefit from the higher temperatures. Our only worry right now is whether it will survive the freak wind gusts we get.
Triple the Garlic – update
The garlic is in, a bit later than should be; oh well.
Triple the Garlic
The garlic is going in very soon, we built and prepared 4 more beds to plant 600 cloves.
Blueberry Orchard
Catching up with the myriad of projects we undertook this Summer, we planted a small blueberry orchard. It unfortunately didn’t take well and 40% of the twigs look dead. But the rest are good and we’ll keep replacing and growing it over the years. We got a whopping 10 blueberries out of it this year 🙂 We expect to be drowning in the blue gold within 2 to 3 years.
Upping our game
We are finally planting a real garden after years of temporary arrangements. We are a long way from the square foot gardening we did in Utah. We’re at the opposite extreme really. From an urban space-constrained deserty Utah to a rural roomy arable Vermont.
Huge thanks to Fred for saving me hours or brutal work with his awesome tractor :).
Getting into Garlic
210 cloves we planted earlier this month, here in their cozy beds.
Our own apples
We found ~20 apple trees on the land so far. These that were not good a few weeks ago are starting to turn and become sweet. The deer apparently have a sweet tooth like we do, they are an excellent indicator of when an apple tree is good to eat. Unfortunately they are getting the lion share of the apples this year. We saw them bump into a tree to make apples fall and stand on their back legs which allows them to reach quite high.
I love old tech, this thing translates spinning into peeling, coring & slicing!
Wood fire is really interesting to cook with
Garden
Not much but happy to have something with everything going on this year.
The harvests are finally rolling in
With our late start and the crazy rain, it won’t be a great year.
Machetes have a bad rep,
but they can clear some serious bush.
This whole area was reclaimed along with the ancient logging road leading to it. This is where the chicken coop will go, rotating the fenced-in area for the chickens with the garden each season.
I wish I had a picture of what it looked like before.
The garden this year
Nothing major but pretty decent.
Tunbridge World Fair 2012, ribon loot
No “best in show” but not too shabby for a first year.
