I am still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that Thanksgiving is already here... Where did this year go?!? It seems like just a few days ago that I was marveling over how early I was able to clean up the fall garden this year, and how I had plenty of time to finish before winter... Now winter is here, and I've been mulching and moving hay bales in 19-degree windchill all weekend!
Fortunately, it looks like we'll have a little warmup for the week ahead, so maybe I can actually get things finished soon - fingers crossed!
Anyway, Thanksgiving means...
...it's time for this year's gratitude list!
This year, I'm specifically focusing on the things I'm grateful for on the homestead, so you can consider this a homestead update as well. :-) We are so blessed to have such a wonderful place to live, and I want to celebrate that in today's post. I hope it inspires you to think about the little things you're grateful for in your life as well!
Fortunately, it looks like we'll have a little warmup for the week ahead, so maybe I can actually get things finished soon - fingers crossed!
Anyway, Thanksgiving means...
...it's time for this year's gratitude list!
This year, I'm specifically focusing on the things I'm grateful for on the homestead, so you can consider this a homestead update as well. :-) We are so blessed to have such a wonderful place to live, and I want to celebrate that in today's post. I hope it inspires you to think about the little things you're grateful for in your life as well!
While our little patch of land we call home is not without its challenges, we've been fortunate to have access to resources that make things a little easier and more enjoyable to work - particularly when it comes to the garden. Without further ado, the first thing I'm grateful for on our homestead is access to resources such as...
1.) Hay Bales and Wood Chips
When we first put up a fence in a corner of the field and started digging into the sod to create a garden, we had no idea of the challenges we would face. Frequent flooding, solid clay soil, persistent invasive weeds, deer, vole infestations - these were all things to come.
With wide-eyed enthusiasm, we awaited the first spring on our new homestead... And we experienced most of these challenges that first summer (with the exception of the deer, which somehow didn't discover our garden until last year), but thankfully, we had decided to try a little experiment with the 30 hay bales that our neighbor had left us when mowing our field. This really saved our garden that first summer.
With the frequent rains and incessant flooding over the course of that summer, my raised soil beds sat in pools of water most of the summer, and some of our crops suffered as a result. However, planting in hay bales meant I was able to start planting much earlier than I would have otherwise, rather than having to wait for the puddles of mud to dry up.
I learned a lot that first season about which crops grew well in hay bales and which didn't, and it was a great learning experience. I have continued to learn over the ensuing years, but even as our garden has expanded and taken form since then, I still maintain a little section of hay bales at each end of the garden.
Some of my best harvests have come from these bales. This year's 19 hay bales yielded 37 pounds of potatoes, 122 pounds of butternut squash, 12 quarts of tomato sauce, 20+ melons, and numerous bags of hot and sweet peppers, which are now safely sliced and diced and stored in the freezer for the months to come. While the voles do enjoy making a home there (especially in the winter), the benefits of growing in hay bales still outweigh this nuisance.
However, as much as the hay bales have been a boon to our garden, wood chips have been at least as great a blessing. The first year's garden was not only flooded for much of the season (which meant a mucky, mosquitoey work experience for me), but it was also plagued by persistent weeds which created endless work for both myself and my husband. The second year, we began framing out each new bed with cedar wood as it was created, which helped somewhat. But eventually, my husband grew tired of trying to maneuver the mower between the beds, and I was running ragged trying to keep up with the weeding. After being introduced to the "Eden method" of gardening with wood chips, we decided to try something similar in our garden.
Wood chips have been like magic for our garden! While we don't use them in the garden in the traditional way as mulch, we filled the pathways between the beds with chips one summer, and the result has been nothing short of amazing.
Using wood chips solved both of our major problems at once: it almost totally eliminated any pools of standing water, and reduced weeds by about 90%. (If we get an extreme rainfall of 4" as we did this summer a couple of times, we may have a few puddles for a day or two, but they are quickly absorbed.) I only have to pull a few thistles and dandelions in the pathways throughout the summer, but for the most part, the garden is largely weed-free. Even the pernicious Creeping Charlie doesn't care much to grow in wood chips, and is easily pulled out when it encroaches. I now spend only a few hours per summer weeding.
And just as important, these resources cost us very little. I would love to use hay from our land in the garden; however, our farming neighbor retired and the new guy only makes the large round bales, so we are no longer able to get the square hay bales needed for the garden from our own property. Fortunately, I've been able to find a local source of organic hay bales which aren't too expensive, and by requesting last year's bales, I am able to get them for half-price (about $3/bale). We use them for chicken bedding and compost as well as in the garden, so all of this material is organic and won't harm my garden. We typically spend around $60-70/year on hay bales, but we usually make about $120-$180 on the sale of the hay from the rest of our property. The wood chips we get for free from local arborists or through Chip Drop.
Using these resources has made a world of difference for our garden, and it is paying off! This year's garden - despite the extreme amounts of rain - was one of the best in years, which leads me to item #...
2.) An Amazing Garden Harvest!
This year's garden was outstanding by any standards. All the rain meant little time spent watering (at least until the fall when drought arrived), and there were plenty of grass clippings to keep everything well mulched.
I grew melons this year for the first time in several years, and miraculously, there were almost no cucumber beetles, so they actually survived long enough to produce lots of ripe, juicy melons. My honeydew were the most scrumptious, lusciously juicy melons I've ever tasted!
I also grew butternut squash for the first time, and they survived until frost with no issues from the dreaded squash vine borer, and provided an amazing bumper crop. (Our volunteer Delicata squash succumbed eventually, but not before setting close to 20 squashes on one plant - plenty of which had matured enough to be quite decent.)
And the potatoes (which were planted in 6 hay bales) yielded a record-breaking 37 lbs. The peppers were not only bountiful, but set and matured early, so I was able to start harvesting and preserving them throughout the fall months, instead of waiting all the way until frost. And we enjoyed lovely cabbages, huge carrots, and a wonderful fall crop of kohlrabi, cilantro, sweet little turnips, radishes, and assorted greens.
Alas, my gorgeous bean plants were heavily damaged by deer, so they didn't produce what they otherwise should have, but otherwise, the only crop that wasn't outstanding this year was the tomatoes, which were extremely afflicted by blight due to the constant rain. However, we still got plenty for fresh eating for the two of us, and also were able to can and freeze enough to last until next tomato season.
The raspberries have also really taken off the past couple of years, and this year was our second year of two massive harvests - both summer and fall. I canned many jars of jam, froze bags and bags, gave some away, made raspberry syrup and ice cream, and ate more fresh raspberries than I can even say!
All in all, it was a truly excellent garden year, and I'm so grateful for the bounty, and ready to rest a few months now... :-)
But of course, I can't end this list without mentioning...
3.) Our Wonderful Animals
I've always loved animals, but never truly realized how much joy they can bring to our human lives until I got married and got some of my own. They are essential parts of our homestead - the chickens provide delicious and nutritious eggs as well as a great source of compost to nourish the garden. Kitty Dave is an effective (though sometimes intermittent) hunter who has dramatically reduced our vole population over the past year. And our aging pup still offers unconditional love and "guards the house" ferociously even as her muzzle grays and she moves a little slower these days.
From our sweet Molly Brown with her endlessly cute triangle ears, to the greedy love of incessantly purring Dave, to the deep satisfaction of weeding the garden with our chickens scratching around me, our homestead animals provide companionship, endless entertainment, and food for both body and soul. I can't imagine life without them.
I wish you and your loved ones a safe, healthy, and happy holiday season, surrounded by a bounty of blessings as rich as mine. :-)
Love,
Rose.
1.) Hay Bales and Wood Chips
When we first put up a fence in a corner of the field and started digging into the sod to create a garden, we had no idea of the challenges we would face. Frequent flooding, solid clay soil, persistent invasive weeds, deer, vole infestations - these were all things to come.
With wide-eyed enthusiasm, we awaited the first spring on our new homestead... And we experienced most of these challenges that first summer (with the exception of the deer, which somehow didn't discover our garden until last year), but thankfully, we had decided to try a little experiment with the 30 hay bales that our neighbor had left us when mowing our field. This really saved our garden that first summer.
With the frequent rains and incessant flooding over the course of that summer, my raised soil beds sat in pools of water most of the summer, and some of our crops suffered as a result. However, planting in hay bales meant I was able to start planting much earlier than I would have otherwise, rather than having to wait for the puddles of mud to dry up.
I learned a lot that first season about which crops grew well in hay bales and which didn't, and it was a great learning experience. I have continued to learn over the ensuing years, but even as our garden has expanded and taken form since then, I still maintain a little section of hay bales at each end of the garden.
Some of my best harvests have come from these bales. This year's 19 hay bales yielded 37 pounds of potatoes, 122 pounds of butternut squash, 12 quarts of tomato sauce, 20+ melons, and numerous bags of hot and sweet peppers, which are now safely sliced and diced and stored in the freezer for the months to come. While the voles do enjoy making a home there (especially in the winter), the benefits of growing in hay bales still outweigh this nuisance.
However, as much as the hay bales have been a boon to our garden, wood chips have been at least as great a blessing. The first year's garden was not only flooded for much of the season (which meant a mucky, mosquitoey work experience for me), but it was also plagued by persistent weeds which created endless work for both myself and my husband. The second year, we began framing out each new bed with cedar wood as it was created, which helped somewhat. But eventually, my husband grew tired of trying to maneuver the mower between the beds, and I was running ragged trying to keep up with the weeding. After being introduced to the "Eden method" of gardening with wood chips, we decided to try something similar in our garden.
Wood chips have been like magic for our garden! While we don't use them in the garden in the traditional way as mulch, we filled the pathways between the beds with chips one summer, and the result has been nothing short of amazing.
Using wood chips solved both of our major problems at once: it almost totally eliminated any pools of standing water, and reduced weeds by about 90%. (If we get an extreme rainfall of 4" as we did this summer a couple of times, we may have a few puddles for a day or two, but they are quickly absorbed.) I only have to pull a few thistles and dandelions in the pathways throughout the summer, but for the most part, the garden is largely weed-free. Even the pernicious Creeping Charlie doesn't care much to grow in wood chips, and is easily pulled out when it encroaches. I now spend only a few hours per summer weeding.
And just as important, these resources cost us very little. I would love to use hay from our land in the garden; however, our farming neighbor retired and the new guy only makes the large round bales, so we are no longer able to get the square hay bales needed for the garden from our own property. Fortunately, I've been able to find a local source of organic hay bales which aren't too expensive, and by requesting last year's bales, I am able to get them for half-price (about $3/bale). We use them for chicken bedding and compost as well as in the garden, so all of this material is organic and won't harm my garden. We typically spend around $60-70/year on hay bales, but we usually make about $120-$180 on the sale of the hay from the rest of our property. The wood chips we get for free from local arborists or through Chip Drop.
Using these resources has made a world of difference for our garden, and it is paying off! This year's garden - despite the extreme amounts of rain - was one of the best in years, which leads me to item #...
2.) An Amazing Garden Harvest!
This year's garden was outstanding by any standards. All the rain meant little time spent watering (at least until the fall when drought arrived), and there were plenty of grass clippings to keep everything well mulched.
I grew melons this year for the first time in several years, and miraculously, there were almost no cucumber beetles, so they actually survived long enough to produce lots of ripe, juicy melons. My honeydew were the most scrumptious, lusciously juicy melons I've ever tasted!
I also grew butternut squash for the first time, and they survived until frost with no issues from the dreaded squash vine borer, and provided an amazing bumper crop. (Our volunteer Delicata squash succumbed eventually, but not before setting close to 20 squashes on one plant - plenty of which had matured enough to be quite decent.)
And the potatoes (which were planted in 6 hay bales) yielded a record-breaking 37 lbs. The peppers were not only bountiful, but set and matured early, so I was able to start harvesting and preserving them throughout the fall months, instead of waiting all the way until frost. And we enjoyed lovely cabbages, huge carrots, and a wonderful fall crop of kohlrabi, cilantro, sweet little turnips, radishes, and assorted greens.
Alas, my gorgeous bean plants were heavily damaged by deer, so they didn't produce what they otherwise should have, but otherwise, the only crop that wasn't outstanding this year was the tomatoes, which were extremely afflicted by blight due to the constant rain. However, we still got plenty for fresh eating for the two of us, and also were able to can and freeze enough to last until next tomato season.
The raspberries have also really taken off the past couple of years, and this year was our second year of two massive harvests - both summer and fall. I canned many jars of jam, froze bags and bags, gave some away, made raspberry syrup and ice cream, and ate more fresh raspberries than I can even say!
All in all, it was a truly excellent garden year, and I'm so grateful for the bounty, and ready to rest a few months now... :-)
But of course, I can't end this list without mentioning...
3.) Our Wonderful Animals
I've always loved animals, but never truly realized how much joy they can bring to our human lives until I got married and got some of my own. They are essential parts of our homestead - the chickens provide delicious and nutritious eggs as well as a great source of compost to nourish the garden. Kitty Dave is an effective (though sometimes intermittent) hunter who has dramatically reduced our vole population over the past year. And our aging pup still offers unconditional love and "guards the house" ferociously even as her muzzle grays and she moves a little slower these days.
From our sweet Molly Brown with her endlessly cute triangle ears, to the greedy love of incessantly purring Dave, to the deep satisfaction of weeding the garden with our chickens scratching around me, our homestead animals provide companionship, endless entertainment, and food for both body and soul. I can't imagine life without them.
I wish you and your loved ones a safe, healthy, and happy holiday season, surrounded by a bounty of blessings as rich as mine. :-)
Love,
Rose.
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