If you’re wondering whether I caught Coronavirus and died, no, I am alive and well. Back in March, I finished a job that I was doing for the school and started a week off from working when I realized that if I was going to make my move to the country, it might as well be now or it might be never. I called my son Jeremy (whose place was just two doors down from where my house was going to be and asked if I could stay with them until I could get settled. He and his wife agreed and I packed up and was on my way.

The details about the house will be for a later blog, but let me show you around the homestead and show you what I have been doing for the past almost 3 months.

The Flowering Trees

The first thing I did was plant my flowering trees along the road. I had received Hawthorn, crabapple, crape myrtle, Dogwood, and Redbud from The Arbor Day Foundation back in December, but hadn’t been able to plant them until late March. Four survived. I am not sure which trees they are yet. I’ll let you know later.

Main Garden

This is my main garden. It doesn’t look like much right now, but it is currently ongoing. I’ve planted corn, beans, winter and summer squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, swiss chard, dill, spring lettuce mix, and eggplant.

Spring/Perennial Garden

This is my spring/perennial garden. The garlic I had planted back in December, and then I started planting potatoes, strawberries, asparagus (grown from seed), cabbages, and onions back in March. I also transplanted perennial herbs–oregano, lemon mint, and thyme–grown from seed and transplanted. Later I planted yellow wax beans and cantaloupe and this garden is doing exceptionally well. I am primarily using a no till method here. I dug holes just enough to get the seeds, plants, or potatoes in the ground. I started mulching by using old grass that I raked up from around the yard. Then I took leaves and piled them on and now I am piling grass clippings around the plants. As you can see, the plants are really thriving.

Here’s another view of the same garden.

Future Chicken Pen

This is the future home of my chickens. I ordered 50 chicks that will be arriving early in July. More about them later.

Pond

This is our pond on the far end of the property. I haven’t done anything with it yet.

Sweet Potatoes

These are the sweet potatoes I planted. I took a hole and filled it in with good topsoil and planted them. They are growing quite slowly, but should really start taking off now that the temperatures are finally going up!

Mini Meadow

Here is my mini meadow (with peonies in the foreground). Sometimes the best things to do is nothing. The grass there is growing amazingly well, but the ground is so rocky and rutted that I can’t safely get the lawnmower in that part of the yard. I am not sure what I will do with this grass yet. Eventually I hope to have a couple goats, but I’ll need good fencing first.

There you have it, the beginnings of what will be my permaculture learning center. Right now I mostly have annuals planted, a few perennials and have started on the house. I have so much more to show you!

Simply Vegetable Gardening

With threatened food shortages on the horizon, it’s time to get serious about growing our own gardens again. I wrote Simply Vegetable Garden with the novice in mind. Click the link below to get your copy today!