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Blackberry Patch is Started

3/31/2017

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The berry bushes, more like twigs, are in the ground!  This is the start of our new blackberry patch.  Lots more work to be done, put the patch is started.  We currently have four varieties, five if you count what's in our personal yard garden.  I was in hopes of finding larger plants.  Just not available from my usual source this year.  The few plants found were not the varieties we were looking for.  More plants will be added later as we find them and are able to propagate from existing plants.

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The roses are in bloom at Our Little Barnyard

3/27/2017

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I got worms!

3/23/2017

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Sorry, I couldn't resist.  Just wanted to share the moment with you...  Within a few minutes all the new arrivals had moved underground and began to settle in at their new home.  Bet they are glad all the movement and being tossed about over the past couple of days has finally come to a halt!  Happy farming and God bless!
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March Madness On The Farm

3/20/2017

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This is an exciting week on the farm!  We are expecting several cool packages in the mail!  The first has already arrived...an observation beehive!  Can't wait to get this set up and buzzing with bees.  I will be using it in a children's education program.  The bee exhibit will be one of three presentations I'm making for a local library.  This is an exciting opportunity to teach our future farmers about the importance of bees and sustainable living!

The next package to arrive will be full of worms!  Yes, worms.  Our composting worms are doing so well, it's time to start focusing on the larger fishing bait worms now.  These will be left to settle and reproduce for the remainder of this year.  So, hone up your fishing skills!  The live bait will be ready next spring.


The last shipment  expected this week will be full of blackberry bushes!  Though we already have several on the farm, these will be planted in a berry patch with produce harvests for farmer's markets and pick-your-own sales in 2018.  We are excited to be starting out with four varieties. 

The excitement of the package arrivals will soon wane with thoughts of the impending work to follow!  To renew my excitement, I remind myself I could be stuck inside crunching numbers all day in an accounting office somewhere.  Now, digging in the dirt doesn't sound so bad.      Happy farming and God bless!

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Red, White and Blue Garden

3/16/2017

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Red,
white
and blue
potatoes, that is....

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Again, this is another gardening experiment for this year---planting potatoes in containers.  Why so many experimental gardens you ask?  There are a few reasons.  The first being, have you ever heard the definition of insanity?  It has been said insanity is when you keep trying the same thing and expecting different results.  With that said, I am trying several new planting methods this year hoping for better and more consistent results.  Though rabbits do not like eating potatoes, I do not like digging potatoes.  After the plants have grown in these pots all summer, I should be able to just dump them out and easily harvest.  Keep in touch and follow the progress this summer as the growing season continues.
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Hay Bale Garden

3/13/2017

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Trying out hay bale gardening for the first time this year.  You will see strawberries , planted after the conditioning of the  bales.  One reasons for trying this method is to try and prevent the wild rabbits running amuck in the yard from eating all my produce!  Hoping the bales will be tall enough to prevent rabbits from reaching the plants. 
Here I have another experiment with a raised bed garden.  The intent was to build it higher, but as it was time to get the onions in the ground, I just used the blocks I already had available on the farm.  Knowing rabbits do not like onions, I planted them along the inside parameter of the garden thinking they would not go through the onions to get to the other produce.  I was wrong!!  After buying and planting cabbage, broccoli, kale, brussels sprouts and bok choy the rabbits near destroyed all the young plants in less than 24 hours!!  Not to mention nibbling on the sweet peas previously planted in the same garden.  Lesson Learned.
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After determining most of the plants nibbled on by the rabbits were going to survive, I decided to plant them in the hay bale garden as well.  I had previously planted seeds of various greens in the bales, which failed to sprout.  This failure left abundant room to transplant the nibbled on plants from the raised bed.  It has been less than a week since the transplant.  The new growth is unbelievable!   You will notice some larger cabbage and brussels on the back row.  There are plants purchased to replace what the little cotton tails had snacked on.
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    A Mattingly
    Artist, Gardener, Writer

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  • Home
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