The start of a farm blog!

Fall is here, and it came really soon. As some of you know, we moved to the farm May 22 and had to really stretch to get unpacked (both home and businesses) AND get anything into the ground. There is still so much to do!

I figured I'd outline what we've done thus far in the little time that we have had. As far as planting goes, we focused on bush crops that take a while to get settled, figuring these plants should be set into the ground now, to get a jump on subsequent years. We planted three raspberry, 4 elderberry, 1 choke barry, 2 rose, 1 vitex, and 1 stag horn sumac bushes/trees. We'll be planting blueberry, boysenberry, blackberry, and even more elder and rose next year. We also carved out a smaller version of what will be an epic garden next year and grew cayenne (great crop!) tomatoes (purple cherokee did great, as did cherry varieties- but I was sad that the paste tomato and brandywine did not flourish.), lemon balm, yarrow, feverfew, mullein, valerian, elecampane, horseradish, and summer squashes. I have already created the plan for next year- putting in posts, fencing, trellises, and making a 33' x 42' garden plot. We'll be planting all kinds of wonders in there for ourselves, for Haven, and for market gardening. I am also going to carve out an oval bed in a marshy slopey part of the yard for marshmallow, horsetail, comfrey, and self-heal. There will also be a crescent of tulsi on one end of the kitchen garden. Along the pasture fence line, we are planting the bush crops and flower crops. Next year, we get chickens! We can do up to 80 chickens in the space we've chosen to build a coop and run. The coop itself will be 25' x 13' and the run will be attached at 25' x 32'.Super excited to get chickens and a couple geese. Looking at breeds now to see what would be cold-hardy good laying breeds that get along well with others. The geese we are thinking of are Sebastopol geese, anyone with experience with them should PM me! This year, we are working at accruing all the tools we need for homesteading: wheelbarrows, riding mowers, power tools, things we never needed as city dwellers. Hoping to trade in our car for a pick-up truck one day!