We ARE Going to Have a Garden This Year!
Well, we’ve been living here on our homestead for a couple of years, and so far, our garden attempts have been a failure. The first year we tried we just hand-dug up a soddy patch (full of quack grass!) and planted it to onions, lettuce, carrots - pretty simple. Unfortunately, after we double dug the bed (and just turned the sod over) the quack grass roots were a foot underneath the surface of the soil. And of course, the grass came back - but there was no getting rid of it! The roots were 1 foot underneat the surface, our little seedlings were growing, we were trying to build a house, the deer were eating the onion tops. Well, I just let it go after valliantly trying to hand-weed that grass out of there, it was mission impossible.
The next year we purchased some weaner pigs and put them in a pen over where we wanted our garden to grow. Ah-hah we thought, this will take care of that quack grass! The pigs did root some, and ate some, and by the time we were done with pigs in that pen, the sod had been pretty well killed - or so it seemed on the surface. Last summer it didn’t come back, the sod was pretty black, so we thought that we were triumphant! However, we were away so much of last year with our fence building contract that we didn’t bother with a garden.
But THIS year we have a borrowed tractor, and a borrowed cultivator, so Larry has worked up that patch of ground. Guess what we are finding today? Quack grass roots ;). They are hard to kill! But…we’ll take out as many as we can find and just go ahead. We MUST have a garden this year! We have a rhubarb start, and a comfrey start that need homes ASAP! We just picked them up yesterday from my sister-in-laws old place, I think it came with rhubarb when they bought it. I just love rhubarb, and haven’t had any (in the garden) since my parents garden when I was a small child,s o this is very exciting! Who knows what variety it is, but it’s heritage that’s for certain! My husband insisted we get some from their place because it is sweeter than others he’s tried. Mmmm, rhubarb!
[...] then there’s me, Jennifer Bogart presents We ARE Going To Have a Garden This Year posted at Quiverfullfamily.com Blog. Our garden defeats in past years, and our determination to have [...]
Hey Jennifer! That is how we started our garden spot here, it was all thick overgrown grass, so we fenced off about half an acre and cross fenced it in the middle. I have 2 sections, the “top” which gets the most sun, and the “bottom” which is great for an early spring or late fall garden and then the berry patch which is full of strawberries. Whenever a section is not growing something I put ponies in it. Works great and finally after 3 years we are getting better and better. I keep ponies in it all winter. They eat stuff and fertilize. I do happen to have some really cute ponies for sale…….
blessings, Penny Raine
http://www.pennyraine.com/blog
Penny Raines last blog post..bad movies good movies
well, what can i say? all the best to your gardening venture!
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