The days move quickly this time of year.  We have been really busy setting up more rows, installing brambles, and perennials, seeding, mulching…I could go on and on (and if you would like me to, just email me, and I’ll get back to you in another month!).  Roy (remember him?  I mention him a lot) let me go over to his house, that he is moving from, and dig up as many plants as I wanted to.  So I did.  I dug up gobs and gobs of strawberry plants, raspberry plants, onions, and a blackberry bush, and lots of other goodies.  So my time has been spent re-planting these things at our homestead.  It took me several days to install everything and mulch it.  It doesn’t look like that much work, but believe me it wasn’t a picnic.  But, hopefully it will all survive, and be prolific.  We also managed to seed six 25 foot rows with a lettuce mix a few days ago, and now it’s go time.  We’re going to do the grow light route for our seedlings instead of a greenhouse this year, due to the time crunch.  Paul had to order some organic potting soil online, because the whole state of Arkansas thinks that it’s okay to start your seeds in a chemical mix.  It was actually kind of funny, at this one store Paul was asking if the potting mix was organic, that we bought organic seeds yadda yadda….and the lady just didn’t get it.  She felt that all potting mix was created equal, and that even if it did have chemical fertilizer in it, that ‘It wouldn’t hurt your plants none.”  Well, yes lady, you’re right, but that would defeat our whole purpose wouldn’t it?  You just needed to be there. 

It has been quite an unpredictable winter (weather wise) here in Arkansas.  There have been some nice warm days mixed in with some rainy ones and some freezing ones…but today it was in the mid 50’s so we were out and about today.  I went over to Roy’s house and dug up half of his plant collection, and brought it to my house to transplant.  Paul was busy constructing some of our planting beds, and I decided to put in an herb garden in the back yard.  I started digging out a circle with a mattock.  I had to stop and re-configure, because my circle looked more like an Easter egg.  So I summoned my “Rebecca’s Garden” building circular beds knowledge, and grabbed my funnel, some flour, some string, and a steak, y ouila!  A perfect circle.  Thanks Rebecca for all of your kitsch, it works.  So, enjoy the pictures, and enjoy your day. Peace.   

It rained REALLY HARD all day yesterday (3-5″)  so now all of our pretty rows (ditches) are flooded, and will take a while to dry out.  It’s ok I  guess because we couldn’t do much to them yet, but we are expecting more rain.  Roy, the “Guerilla gardener” gave us a lot of supplies that he had in his garage.  Lots of starter packs and pots, potting soils, trays, doors, hoses, sprinklers, I could go on and on…Thank you Roy for helping us stay on budget (for those who want to know the budget is $1000, like a remodel show : ) Mas y menos.  

FREE!   We have been busy lately.  The whole month of January the city of Fayetteville was giving away free mulch.  So of course we went and received three or four truck loads of it.  As we shoveled it out of the truck, it seemed every load had more and more random junk in it.  Wires, plastic, an oil dipstick!  So, we decided not to use it after all of that.  So if you need wood mulch, come on over, I’ll give you a good price ; )So now what?  Well, as luck would have it, Paul ran into a wood chipping crew here in town and asked what they were going to do with the wood chips.  These guys are a traveling wood chipping circus out of Minnesota know as “The Nature Boys”.  They said we could have as much as we wanted.  Hallelujah!  As of yet they have dropped off one load of wood mulch, and two loads of leaves.  They told us they were going to have eight more trucks of wood mulch that they needed to dump, and Paul wants them all.  So again, if anyone needs any wood mulch (clean or dirty) I’ll give you a price.  It seems as if my vegetable farm is turning into a wood mulch staging ground. What do we need with all of this mulch and leaves?  We are doing a lasagna style bed where we layer organic materials on top of one another (mulch, leaves, top soil), so we don’t have to till up the existing soil, ruining its natural composition…and we need a lot of it!  Thank you Nature Boys for coming into my life with free materials.Yesterday we had a friend, Eric Oliver (more affectionately known in some circles as E-ROC) come over with his skid steer to dig up the turf and remove it so we could start laying down our materials.  As I type today I can still here him buzzing around out there.  Thank you Eric for your help, because lord only knows where Paul and I would be renting a bobcat and trying to do what you do.  Excavating is an art.  So with Eric out there moving dirt, and shuffling around some piles of wood chips, it is allowing us to stay on schedule to get our beds in place, and giving us time for other things that need to be done.Our seeds arrived the other day in the mail from “Seeds of change” and “Johnny’s” all organic.  So after the rows, our focus will be green house.  Ta ta for now.    

For some odd reason I had it in my mind that looking through a seed catalogue would be a relatively easy task.  There were things that I had already taken into account, such as what zone I’m in and what grows here and what doesn’t.  What I faced when I had choices to make, I wasn’t prepared for.  Do you know how many hundreds of varieties there are for tomatoes?  It’s a very important decision to make, and I’m afraid to make it.Last year we had three different varieties of tomatoes planted.  We encountered issues with each as the season went on.  Some split, or developed diseased spots, while others were devoured by birds.  So it brings up all of these new things in my head, one:  develop a strategy plan and supply list to keep the birds out, and two: Figure out why those tomatoes developed those problems.  Maybe that’s why farmers kept journals and logs.That’s why I’m having issues deciding on what to plant this year.  I know what I want to plant, zucchini, tomatoes, lettuce, basil etc., but gambling on certain varieties to produce.  That’s what this all is though trial and error.  If it doesn’t work this time, tweak it and try again.  It’s not fair.  Mother Nature needs to give me a hug. If anyone has any suggestions for me, or knows what tomato variety never fails, then let me know. be well. 

I thought I would post some pictures and talk briefly about what we’ve been doing since we moved in to this little homestead.  Paul and Roy have been working here and there trying to get our chicken coop to become a viable structure for habitation.  They have poured concrete and set posts, added some plywood siding, a roof and a window.  There is still more work to be done on it, we just need to find the right time to do it.  I am still working on my compost pile, even though it is the winter time, and things don’t compost as fast in cooler temperatures, but it’s rockin’!  we’ve been looking through seed catalogues getting our seed xmas list going.  We will be ordering our seeds this week sometime, and I just want to go crazy and get all of these exotic vegetables and flowers.  Only time and space can predict what will happen there.  About a month ago we had help putting in a cold frame to grow greens through the winter.  They’re growing, which is a plus.  So now I’m a cold frame advocate, where before I always thought ‘Yeah that’s a nice notion, but does it really work?’  It does.  Also, cyberspace, if anyone out there has any potato knowledge out there let me know.    Be well.