In the spirit of Independence Day, we have decided to work more on our website so we can share more details about our journey towards self sufficiency. We are not sure which platform will be best for sharing these adventures but like all things there will be a learning curve. You can always follow us on social media (Instagram has the most photos) which we hope to share here as well.
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We spent the weekend working on building a summer garden at our off grid property. We would like to incorporate permaculture methods as we have been seeing great success with this method vs traditional farming. Since we did not have time to wait for cardboard to break down, we did the dreaded scrape, removing the grass from the area. We then mixed together several bags of organic compost and top soil using a 1:1 ratio and created rows for planting. Between the rows we used mulched tree debris and created walkways for harvesting the garden. It was a lot of work in the blazing hot summer sun but we made it through.
The next day we used our handy Chapin Garden Seeder to make quick use of planting the rows! It was a little more costly than the other seeders but we both liked the design and after opening it, we were pleased with our purchase. It is very easy to use, you just screw in the right size seed plate, adjust the depth lever for the seeds on the bottom, toss in the seeds and go. We suggest walking slowly and holding the seeder at a slight tilt so it does not miss any seeds. It was soooo much easier planting everything with it than being on our hands an knees with our Garden Shovel (which we did first for the pumpkins). After the seeding was done, we hammered some posts in the ground and stapled two rolls of chicken wire around the 10×20 area. It probably wont keep the critters out but hopefully it will deter them.
We are very happy with the progress we have made over the long weekend and if we are able to get everything to grow, we hope to make those items available at our farm stand this fall. Below is a breakdown of our little summer garden:
Row 1: Seminole Pumpkins & Sunflowers
Row 2: Pin Striped Peanuts
Row 3: Ethiopian Kale
Row 4: Mini Sweet Peppers & Onions
Row 5: Glass Corn
Row 6: Rainbow Carrots & Dill
Row 7: Watermelon Radish & Cow Peas
Fence Line: Luffa Gourd
The Blue Riverhaus 