A Mattingly - Gardens and Grace
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Farm-To-You  @  Woodcreek Today!

5/15/2018

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Wondering what's on the carte from the farm this month?

Eggs
Honey
Fresh cut herbs - multiple varieties
Tomato plants  (Homestead - Heirloom)
Calendula plants (Pot Marigold)
Shasta Daisy plants
Vermicompost
Composting Worms


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Shasta Daisy

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Calendula

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Our Little Barnyard has two missions when it comes to growing edible plants.  Our first priority is to grow plants listed on the Dirty Dozen list in order to have healthier food. Foods on the Dirty Dozen list are the top twelve foods containing the highest levels of pesticides and herbicides.  We do not use pesticides or herbicides on the farm. 

Our second priority is to grow superfoods.  A superfood is an exceptionally good food naturally high in vitamins, minerals, fiber, antioxidants or omega-3 fatty acids.  These foods are good for improving one's health and for boosting the immune system. 

Herbs

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How Does Your Garden Grow?

5/14/2018

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WOW!  The cooler temperatures are gone and my gardens are growing like weeds!  Oh... the weeds are also growing in the garden, but so far I've been able to keep up with most of the weeding.  Check out these pictures from before and after a two week trip I just returned from.  Can't believe how much things grew during my absence.  Scroll on down to find out what all is growing on the farm.

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After

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What's growing on the farm?

On the arch gardens, we have several varieties of heirloom squash, watermelon, pumpkins and gourds growing with a few marigolds and nasturtium mixed in for insect control.  Inside the arch gardens we have a variety of heirloom tomatoes.  One will also find a few hay bales in one of the arches growing a mix of lettuce and carrots.  It will be interesting to see how the carrots grow in the bales!  During my time away from the farm, the swiss chard growing in one bale did not make it.  Down he side on one garden you can see the okra off to a good start.

We have additional hay bales growing rhubarb, collards, yellow squash and both green and gold zucchini.  I can't wait to try the gold zucchini!

The raised beds contain a variety of herbs, beets, kale, broccoli and various other veggies. 

This year we started a small blueberry patch.  So far it looks like we will have a few berries to harvest and sell at our Farm-To-You events.  The blackberry patch we started last year, and greatly expanded this year, is off to a great start.  We are not expecting to harvest many berries this year.  Our hope is to have a large harvest in the next couple of years.

Whenever possible, we grow heirloom and/or organic varieties of vegetables.  Our goal is to totally avoid GMO varieties.

We are a small farm with several small gardens that produce an abundance of foods.  If you would like to learn how to grow a lot of food in a very small space, check out our workshops!

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Fall / Winter Garden - Very productive

11/28/2017

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Our small fall garden is growing like weeds!  Didn't have a lot of time to plant a large one, but we did manage to get some kale and cabbage planted.  We have already had kale with SEVERAL meals.  Looks like I will be able to freeze more and still have some to share with my favorite food pantry!  Cabbage should start forming heads soon.  Last week I added some old beet seeds to a small unplanted space in the garden.  We shall see if it comes up. 

​Speaking of garden... how many of you noticed this garden is in an old feed trough?  Started to sell it several years back as we were no longer using it.  Then I had the brilliant idea to repurpose it into a garden.  Perfect height for keeping rabbits out!!

This should be a great year for fall gardens in Texas as we have a forecast for a warm and dry winter.  The growing season should be greatly extended.  Just need to remember to do lots of watering.

Happy Gardening & God Bless!


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The Red, White & Blue ready for the 4th

6/8/2017

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     The red, white and blue potatoes made it just in time for the 4th of July!  Harvested my first few containers this week. Going to let the others grow for a while longer as there are still green leaves on the plants. I don't harvest my potatoes until the above-ground foliage is brown.


     To the right you can see how the plant has turned brown despite one's best efforts to keep it alive with the right amount of light and moisture. I have moved the container to a trough for harvesting the potatoes, a method which is a win/win for me this year. The trough needs to be filled with compost and soil for the planting of greens. The soil coming out of the potato containers is a combination of soil, peat moss and hay that was around the farm this spring. The composting process has already started. After harvesting, I can continue to add to this compost mixture all summer, building up the soil level in the trough for a fall planting.
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     To the left, you can see where the soil and potatoes have been dumped out. Now all one has to do is easily dig through the soil and hay to harvest the colorful red potatoes. Once I have harvested the remaining containers in a week or two, I'll plant another batch to be ready this fall.

Happy growing, and God Bless!
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Garden Progress...

5/30/2017

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It's been a while since we've chatted.  While I have been busy finalizing wedding plans and walking out on a mountain top to say "I Do", my little gardens have been growing LIKE WEEDS! Yes, I said 'like weeds' and not 'growing weeds'. This brings a big joyful smile across my face. In the past, I have grown as many big weeds in my gardens as plants.  The one thing I did differently this year was planting in a variety of containers and raised beds instead of directly in the ground.  The difference has been huge! I bow, with my hat off, to those of you who can successfully grow beautiful weed-free vegetables in an in-ground garden!!

The hay bale garden, I LOVE! It's easy to maintain and most importantly, the rabbits are not able to eat my vegetables. This I will definitely be expanding next year. My raised bed has been virtually weed free. I was running out of time this spring, so it is only one cinder block high. As a result, rabbits were still able to get in the garden and eat the baby plants. This fall the plan is to raise the height by two more rows of cinder blocks. Tomatoes will also be planted in a different location next year. Love planting flowers and vegetables along the side in the holes of the concrete blocks.

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Update on Gardens . . .

4/11/2017

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Hay bale garden is doing wonderful!  Specially since the plants on the front row of bales were rescued from Peter Rabbit and all his friends...  We have already had several fresh bok choy and kale salads this spring.  The strawberries have a taste that is to die for!  Looking forward to fresh cabbage and broccoli later this summer.

Raised bed garden is doing well also...  Planted the three tomato plants in this garden just before the last freeze.  I was sure they were goners, but to my surprise they have recovered and are growing strong now.  The onions and sweet peas should be ready to harvest soon.  Just planted the peppers last week.  They already have blooms peeking out!  Hummm... peppers, onions, and tomatoes... guess I will have to make salsa this summer! 
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Happy Gardening and God Bless!

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The red, white & blue potatoes are going wild in their growing!!  I'm so excited to see how they turn out later this summer.   I have never had success with potatoes when I planted them directly in the ground.  You can also see some herbs and other plants here in my container garden area.  Due to the rabbits, I put all the containers in an old trough feeder we had on the farm.  So far the rabbits have not been able to reach these plants.  Originally I wanted to use this trough for the planting of greens like spinach, turnips and collards.  With all the other projects going on around the farm, I was not able to get them planted.  Maybe this fall.
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The roses are in bloom at Our Little Barnyard

3/27/2017

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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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Food Forest Started!

12/29/2016

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Had some neglected kale plants in a planter on my patio.  Thought I would use them to start a food forest as I had found the perfect spot on my property recently.  This spring I will be planting a few fruit trees in the area, but for now, I thought I would start with this kale.  As you can see, it has been neglected.  Don't remember the last time I watered it.  Can't believe it's still showing signs of life.  These plants were actually purchased 18 to 24 months ago.  They have been pretty hardy as they have survived the scorching Texas heat and short lived snowy conditions that pass through on occasion throughout the winter.  As of recently, they have survived me.  In planting them, I'm confident in the location I have chosen.  It has been a long while since we have had any real measurable rain.  As I removed the plants from their container and placed them in their new forest home, I was amazed at the moisture in the soil.  Another reason I decided to make this move was to see how they hold up to predators.  More concerned about the wild rabbits and other small creatures roaming this area than I am the coyotes and bobcats.  Use to love all the wild rabbits roaming my yard.  That is until they discovered my gardens and thought that handy little food pantries had sprouted up for their convenience.  I’ll keep you posted and let you know how this turns out.  Until then, cheers and God Bless!
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    A Mattingly
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