Goings On

It's winter. You'd think a gardener's life would slow down a little. Seedlings take some time. This is our second year planting under lights, and the learning curve makes it a bit time consuming, but it's not a huge job.  So we've been asking ourselves what can we do now that will be impossible to do when spring arrives, and we're finding plenty to do. This is what we've been up to lately.

 We need wood! We need garden boxes in a couple places and we want to build a goat shed but we don't want to pay for wood. Is that bad? Anyway, my eye has been on the look out for wood. Belle and I were driving down route 81 near our home when I spied a huge pile of wood in an old farm field. We tracked it down, talked to neighbors and found out it was an old barn that was torn down. The owners recently passed away, and the farm was sold to a developer. They're building a golf course. The next morning I took my pickup to the wood pile and filled it up. I expect them to burn the pile soon, so I plan to go back.
You know what they say, it's good to bend the steel while it's hot. The wood is worth it. It's old and beautiful and oddly sized. I feel like we're saving a tiny piece of the old world for our garden. When it's finally in place, I know we'll appreciate having a piece of farming history in our back yard.

We've been hauling a lot of compost over the last couple of weeks. Our goal is to cover the entire garden this year. I don't know if that's excessive. I don't know what that will do to the pH. I do know our soil will appreciate the boost of micro-organisms. Besides, it's warm this winter. How often does a gardener in our region use the month of February to haul compost? Not often! So that's what we're doing.

We also extended the garden another 15 feet for the new season.

The birds like the worms.

That stump's root system will be a bear!

We're found a small family owned organic wheat farm, Small Valley Milling,  in Halifax, PA about an hour away. With only an acre, that's a big deal to us, because we're too small to grow our own grain. The drive is worth it. The farmer charges less than half the price of organic wheat berries in the grocery store. Plus, he's local and his grain is fresh. We're trying to either grow our food ourselves or personally know the person who grew it. That's kind of hard for people who like to eat out!

Last but not least, our fall seed plants are happy. Here's a few picks of what's growing in our basement.

Waltham 29 from Fedco (I think)

Aussie Brown onions from Kebun Malay Girl

Red Acre cabbage from Robin.

Kai-Lan from Kebun Malay girl

We've also started growing leeks, several other varieties of cabbage, cauliflower, asparagus, celery, kale, mustard greens and chard. We can't wait for spring. How about you?