Our Garden
The first year the plan was to plant a 1500 sq ft garden, not to kill
the animals, cut firewood, and start a compost pile. The compost pile
turned out okay.
The next year was to have 3000sq ft of gardens and have water running to them.
The third year was to plant an orchard and fence it in. Run irrigation
to it and expand the gardens to 6000sq ft. 3000sq ft orchard. Start
going to the farmers market to sell something other than honey. We also
built a greenhouse in the fall.
Next year we planted another garden making it 19000 sq ft. and tried to
produce for the entire year at the market. We also installed drip
irrigation, which greatly reduced the time spent watering. We also
began selling produce directly from the farm.
This year we expanded the gardens to 40000sq ft. and made 300 feet of
hoophouses (mini-greenhouses) and doubled the days at the market.
The soil is clay and because we live on the side of a valley we can
only garden on the benches on the side of the mountain. Compost, goat
manure and cover crops are used to build the soil. We grow organically
with no chemicals. Picking bugs off of plants, crop rotation, and using
row covers helps to control many of the pests.
