Gardening

Updated 4/2019

Last Fall we began the process of relocating the garden to an area closer to the house.  The year before we had the bulldozer work done.

New Garden Site

The first step was to fence.  However, we have plans to replace the perimeter fence so I didn't want to put in any permanent fences at this point.  So, we made a 40 foot by 40 foot square out of welded wire cattle panels.  The first occupants were the beehives followed by the cold frame/raised bed.   We brought in lots of dirt to level the cold frame.  Then we added cow manure and used bedding from the goat barn.  



We hoped this would begin composting and provide heat since it was so cold - too cold for the seeds to germinate.   Success!  We started lettuce, kale and tatsoi.


My next new thing - a heated seedling mat for starting even more stuff inside.  First on that list was Luffas.  


I love growing Luffas.  However, they can be challenging!  They require lots of space, as well as, a long growing period so that the gourds can mature and dry on the vine.  You can pick younger gourds but in my opinion they are much harder and require a lot more work than the ones that dry on the vine.  Luffas are beautiful plants with large gorgeous yellow flowers.  I enjoy watching all the pollinators that are attracted to them - honeybees, bumble bees and butterflies.  
This was my first time using a heated seedling mat.  I had luffas sprouting in about three to four days.  I did plant them in biodegradable pots so I can transfer them to the garden once we are for sure past our average last day of frost.  Supposedly that is tomorrow, but we had a cool snap come in and our lows here at the farm are dipping back into the 30s for the next couple of nights.  

Stay tuned - we will be updating this page as the season progresses.