Today I cleaned out the front raised bed garden. Last year the beans took over, eventually bending the trellis down in a tangle of vines. Several of the lettuce plants still had seed stalks intact. Since we will be planting the tomatoes in this space (if the other house falls through), I went ahead and sprinkled some of the lettuce seeds throughout the garden. Lettuce can easily grow at the base of tomato plants for a nice cut-and-come-again crop while we wait for tomatoes. And if we do end up moving, we can either leave a nice lettuce garden behind, or dig some up and transplant them into buckets to take with.
Today I planted a "Sprout 'n Grow Greenhouse" from DuneCraft. We have two. I did the strawberry one today. I didn't want to start the "mini-melon" one yet because it could still be another month or two until we can safely put them outside. Strawberries are small and take a while to grow when started from seed (voice of experience). On the good side, this kit was very easy to set up. It comes with a plastic greenhouse, a soil puck, and a packet of seeds. The instructions were straightforward. Add water to the puck, break it up, add the seeds, smooth into the soil, put the lid on, put in a sunny location, and wait. On the downside, the kit came with 18 seeds. Yeah, less than 20 strawberry seeds for the $7-8 price. The official count says the seeds should have 90% germination. I hope so. I put the container under the grow light next to the apple tree seedling. Hopefully I will be updating on the progress of this product, and the melon version from the same company when we get closer to planting time.
I want to set up a Back-To-Eden style garden. That's where you put down wet cardboard to smother out the grass and weeds underneath, add a bunch of compost, organic materials, natural fertilizer, and leaves, then top it with wood chips (from a local arborist, not the chemical-laden store-bought kind). The idea being that you can smother out the grass and weeds, while providing fertile soil for the plants you want to grow, and the wood chips on top will help maintain moisture, prevent weeds, and eventually break down to become part of the soil. The only maintenance is pulling annuals out at the end of the year and adding fresh wood chips every few years. The bonus to this one is that when using it for permaculture, the upkeep really is minimum. It can also be easily added on to. So we could start with a smaller space in year one, then add to it each summer as we have access to enough compost and rabbit manure to leave an adequate later between cardboard and wood chips. Potentially your garden could get bigger every year as you learn to maintain, harvest, and process more and more produce. I'm all for less weeding, less watering, and more time enjoying the garden!
And in keeping with the idea of going natural, organic, and hand-in-hand with nature, I have ideas about pest control too. How do you keep your garden free of pests? Well, the first step is to make sure you have healthy plants, and I suspect the garden set up I'm planning would take care of that. Even healthy plants do get attacked by pests when there are hungry bugs in the area. Thinking like Mother Nature - how do trees and wildflowers and grass and everything else survive these pests? Well, they employ critters that eat said pests. So how can I make that work in our garden you might ask? I've actually put a lot of thought into this. We've already bought a couple bird houses, some bird feeders, and a bat house. Birds will often eat insects as part of their natural diet, but they're diurnal (awake during the day and asleep at night). So enticing bats into the area with a bat house will double your bug control plan, because bats are naturally nocturnal (awake at night, and sleep during the day). Adding in a large and diverse flower garden near or interspersed with the vegetable garden will promote beneficial insects to come and make their home in the garden as well. Biodiversity is very important. Our current farming methods lean toward monocultures (think the huge fields of nothing but corn as you're driving through the midwest). How is a honey bee supposed to get enough to eat with no diversity? I propose we grow a little of everything, from perennials like tulips, hollyhocks, and daylilies, to annuals like marigolds, cosmos, and zinnias, and wildflowers and even those flowers that we don't really think about. Did you know that creeping Charlie is considered a weed, but the tiny flowers in the very early spring are food for the bees until other plants start to flower? They're actually very important to a healthy ecosystem. So Creeping Charlie, and even a few dandelions are welcome in our garden.
Which brings me to bees. I would love to get a hive and produce honey, but I know that's way out of my realm. I have enough on my plate, and realistically, I won't have the time or energy to learn about and upkeep a bee hive; not to mention the cost of start up! Not willing to give it up altogether (honey bees are fantastic pollinators), I have been considering finding a local beekeeper and offering space on the new property for a few hives... They get a space for their hives that is organic, chemical-free, and bee-friendly, and we get better pollination for our garden. The beekeeper can maintain their own hives, so there's no risk of me messing anything up, and maybe we could get a jar of honey or two every year in exchange. Sounds like a win-win-win to me. Happy beekeeper, happy bees, and happy gardener.
The idea of chickens is still perplexing me. Daughter #1 is still adamant that she wants chickens. We bought a small outdoor dog kennel last year when we took in some extra rabbits. It's something like 4'x4'and 4' tall. I wonder if it would work as a small chicken tractor if we only had 2-3 hens. We could get a rabbit hutch and modify it to be an enclosed hutch for a lot less than building a coop. But in the end, chickens have pretty toxic manure. It burns plants unless it's well composted. Do I really want chickens? Fresh eggs would be nice, but when Tony can sometimes get them from work for 75-cents a dozen, and we now have a contact that will trade our rabbit losses for fresh pasture raised eggs, is it even cost effective?
So I have been researching ducks. They lay more pounds of eggs per animal (that's pounds, not count) than chickens, have a lower mortality than chickens, have a longer working egg production life than chickens, and their manure is like rabbit manure - ready to apply immediately without composting. Indian Runner ducks supposedly do not need open water to survive, which makes winter care much easier. They're also a hardy breed that is OK with being out on the farm in the winter, not cooped up for months. Best yet? Ducks are also a natural garden pest control. They love to eat slugs and bugs and things, and they won't eat your garden up like chickens will. So maybe ducks will be a good segway into chickens later. A duck house is much easier to make than a chicken coop because they don't need roost perches or nest boxes (Indian Runner ducks are said to have no maternal instinct at all). Of course #1 still wants chickens.
As you can see, my mind has been all over the place. I've had several sleepless nights where I've stayed up researching different things. This property would truly be a dream come true. I keep trying to talk myself down from this excitement. Trying to be reasonable. I think about what this property will mean for me. Since I do not intend to move again, this property means an end to certain things I've always admired or wanted. For example, buying this property means I will never have French doors into my kitchen/dining room, or a deck, or a big house for hosting family gatherings, or a walk-in pantry. I would forever be giving up the opportunity to travel and see the world (farmers are pretty well bound to the farm if there are animals involved). I will not have the space for a horse or a cow. Indoor space will be very limited, which means I will likely have to give up my online selling hobby, or at the very least drastically cut down on what I bring home and hold on to while trying to sell it. It means money will be tight for a while, and my projects will have to be set aside to make sure the bills get paid. It will be a struggle for a little while. It means my rescue work will officially be over with no space inside to take animals in. It means no longer getting to do weekly dinners with my family, as we will be too far away. But most of all, it means giving up the safety net. Once we move, we're on our own. If things go wrong - if Tony loses his job, or the car breaks down, we have no fallback anymore. There will not be a place for us to go back to once we leave our current home. And we won't get the financial help we've gotten in the past from Tony's parents once we walk away from our current house. It's a little scary to stand on the edge of this ledge, but I think it's time we spread our wings, take a leap of faith, and learn to fly on our own. In this case, the benefits of moving far outweigh the risks. I know in my heart that we can make this work, and that it could be a beautiful change in our lives. My heart has long yearned for "home" and this property just feels like home. Peace, family, space, privacy, nature. Like a breath of fresh air after a long time in a prison cell.
For now my anxiety is getting the better of me. I'm hoping and praying, and dreaming and planning. The proverbial ball is in the sellers' court now, and we just await a reply. I think if they decline our offer, or if things fall through after the inspection, or before closing... I think I will be absolutely devastated. I'm trying really hard not to get my hopes up so far, but I think it's too late for that.
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