I have so much to say and I'm not quite sure how to start or include it all. A whole lot has changed since the last time I posted on here over a year ago. The site has gotten a little bit of an update, including a new name. One of Tim (the boyfriend)'s friends Percy suggested I call the farm Allison's Wonderland. And I love it. It really encapsulates all that farming is for me. Growing fruits and vegetables is an absolute wonderland in my mind and I can't think of any better name for my burgeoning business.
This season has not had an easy start. Though, to be fair, you'd think I'd be expecting that now every season, right? It's not like farming is an experience filled with rainbows and puppies (though sometimes there are rainbows...and puppies...and the occasional chicken or wild turkey). But this season, due to the weather and due to some technical difficulties on my end, started sloooooow. I'm beyond pleased to say that we are all planted at this point. And with a far greater diversity at the farm than we have ever had. We're also trying new planting techniques this year, especially with trying to grow things in a more concentrated space so as to choke out more of the weeds and make a little less work for ourselves on that end. My cousin Tim always says we should work smarter and not harder. Speaking of such things, I took the plunge about a month ago and co-purchased a behind-the-tractor rototiller with my cousin. We have been able to finally get the land looking and feeling like we want and the planting and weed management has been much easier thus far as a result. Lots of fun stuff growing this year including peanuts, hops, cardoons, brussels sprouts, and many many many dried beans. So far so good...everything has been coming up and looks lush, green, and verdant. It has been pretty wet and muddy as of late, i.e. my boots in that picture over there. In fact, the mud this past weekend claimed the life of that very first pair of work boots ever. I was quite saddened, but glad to know they were pushed to their limit doing the job they were purchased to do. Now if only we didn't have big mud pits at the farm...
The church garden has been going swimmingly this year. We added a beneficial fungi called mycorrhizae to many of the plants both at church and the farm this year. At church, we have seen an incredible difference in not only the rate of growth of the plants, but also the size of the veggies we've been getting. Two weeks ago, I was pulling up French Breakfast Radishes half the size of my hand. The turnips are giants and the tomato plants are a dark green and so very bushy. As my mother put it, whilst we were watering last week, the garden at the church has become such a joy to tend. I'm excited to see what kind of yield we can push towards this year. Here's to hoping for at least two trips to the food pantry.
And finally, we've added an additional growing space to the roster. Somehow, the school where I work decided it would be a great idea to start a garden there and to pay me to run the club that organizes it. Yeah, I know...I'm still pretty speechless too. That has been the greatest challenge of the season for myriad reasons, not the least of which being it is incredibly tough to establish beds the first year. To cut down on costs and to increase aesthetic appeal, we have employed the use of something called straw wattles to craft our beds. This idea harkens back to the victory gardens of WWII. If you have a chance, google it...they're pretty neat to look at. The kids garden is pretty massive and was the very last to be planted. I'm not yet thrilled with the progress of those plants, but I have to keep reminding myself that they're all relatively new to the beds and still need some time to truly establish themselves. I'll tell you, though, nothing is better than spending three hours with a group of kids who are hauling dirt and at the end of the day, super excited to come over and see how the peanuts are growing. That's why I do this...the joy they bring me is how I know that growing things is what I'm meant to do. Getting paid to do it doesn't hurt either! ;)
So here we are. I'm going to keep updating, as I really believe and feel that this is going to be an exciting season. We're doing far better than we ever have before. The diversity of plants should ensure a steady harvest of foods that my family will eat and preserve so that we buy less in the winter. I'm already planning our Thanksgiving meal. Stay tuned...things around the garden tend to get interesting.
Allison
This season has not had an easy start. Though, to be fair, you'd think I'd be expecting that now every season, right? It's not like farming is an experience filled with rainbows and puppies (though sometimes there are rainbows...and puppies...and the occasional chicken or wild turkey). But this season, due to the weather and due to some technical difficulties on my end, started sloooooow. I'm beyond pleased to say that we are all planted at this point. And with a far greater diversity at the farm than we have ever had. We're also trying new planting techniques this year, especially with trying to grow things in a more concentrated space so as to choke out more of the weeds and make a little less work for ourselves on that end. My cousin Tim always says we should work smarter and not harder. Speaking of such things, I took the plunge about a month ago and co-purchased a behind-the-tractor rototiller with my cousin. We have been able to finally get the land looking and feeling like we want and the planting and weed management has been much easier thus far as a result. Lots of fun stuff growing this year including peanuts, hops, cardoons, brussels sprouts, and many many many dried beans. So far so good...everything has been coming up and looks lush, green, and verdant. It has been pretty wet and muddy as of late, i.e. my boots in that picture over there. In fact, the mud this past weekend claimed the life of that very first pair of work boots ever. I was quite saddened, but glad to know they were pushed to their limit doing the job they were purchased to do. Now if only we didn't have big mud pits at the farm...
The church garden has been going swimmingly this year. We added a beneficial fungi called mycorrhizae to many of the plants both at church and the farm this year. At church, we have seen an incredible difference in not only the rate of growth of the plants, but also the size of the veggies we've been getting. Two weeks ago, I was pulling up French Breakfast Radishes half the size of my hand. The turnips are giants and the tomato plants are a dark green and so very bushy. As my mother put it, whilst we were watering last week, the garden at the church has become such a joy to tend. I'm excited to see what kind of yield we can push towards this year. Here's to hoping for at least two trips to the food pantry.
And finally, we've added an additional growing space to the roster. Somehow, the school where I work decided it would be a great idea to start a garden there and to pay me to run the club that organizes it. Yeah, I know...I'm still pretty speechless too. That has been the greatest challenge of the season for myriad reasons, not the least of which being it is incredibly tough to establish beds the first year. To cut down on costs and to increase aesthetic appeal, we have employed the use of something called straw wattles to craft our beds. This idea harkens back to the victory gardens of WWII. If you have a chance, google it...they're pretty neat to look at. The kids garden is pretty massive and was the very last to be planted. I'm not yet thrilled with the progress of those plants, but I have to keep reminding myself that they're all relatively new to the beds and still need some time to truly establish themselves. I'll tell you, though, nothing is better than spending three hours with a group of kids who are hauling dirt and at the end of the day, super excited to come over and see how the peanuts are growing. That's why I do this...the joy they bring me is how I know that growing things is what I'm meant to do. Getting paid to do it doesn't hurt either! ;)
So here we are. I'm going to keep updating, as I really believe and feel that this is going to be an exciting season. We're doing far better than we ever have before. The diversity of plants should ensure a steady harvest of foods that my family will eat and preserve so that we buy less in the winter. I'm already planning our Thanksgiving meal. Stay tuned...things around the garden tend to get interesting.
Allison