Rainy days like today are perfect for catching up on the blog, and not so great for wandering the Herb and Garden Fair. Lets hope next weekend the Fair comes back due to today's weather, and with them comes the warmth of Spring.  Thursday the sun and warmth visited for the afternoon, presenting the opportunity to finish the the 20 x 20. Here are a few pictures of updates around the Farmhouse.

March 17th - The final planting, besides garlic, to be done in the orchard. Two more blueberry bushes to pollinate, a rose plant (arbor being refurbished), and our last tree an Anna Apple.

March 21st, the 20x20 is done. Decided to try a fascinating design and make the 20x20 a massive spiral, appreciating the sacred geometry in nature.

March 23rd, Paid $35 for this Meyer's Lemon tree, which seems at least 5 years old and was sold with a recently harvested fruit! Extremely excited to see how she does this year. Plan to keep her in a container over planting her as a replacement in the orchard. The challenge will be keeping the cats out and off of her...

Celebrating a wonderful soul with a day of gardening!

Happy day to my beloved grandma, Glorene Strickland.  Today she would have been 75.  Although we have all been missing her for 6 months now, I know that her spirit is with us, in every good deed, kind word, and in EVERY plant and flower.  She loved flowers more than anything, and her happiest times were in the garden or riding around the 200 acre farm on the golf cart.  Pretty much everything I know about plants and growing things I learned from her, not to mention sewing, cooking, cleaning, and loving.  I can still picture her sitting on a bucket in the middle of a field of beans, peas, or whatever she was harvesting that day, smiling, singing, and laughing so genuinely that even god would chuckle, too.  Now her spirit is among the stars, but she is always and forever in my heart and on my mind. 

Today, in her honor, we worked on our own gardens- a lot!  Here's a recap- we trimmed the azaleas and sweet betsys (both bushes in front of the house), planted a Satsuma Mandarin tree, a blueberry bush, tomatos, cilantro, parsley, purple sweet potatoes, peas, and corn.  I also created flower beds on either side of the porch entrance, with pansy, snap dragons, and dianthus joining the mint, peony, and lavender I planted last year.  I also planted a beautiful calla lily, in honor of my grandma.  I know she would love it. :)

Blueberry bush

Satsuma Mandarin- about to bloom!

Tomato transplants- Cherokee Purple, Matt's Wild, and San Marzano

The newly fenced 20x20!  Craig has worked so hard on this, its really shaping up!

My super awesome hand chair!  And a row of newly planted corn-just dirt so far.

Me planting flowers.  I love that I finally have a spot for my teacup birdbath!

Finished!

 

In honor and love of Glorene Strickland, 1938-2012 <3

  

Today has been such a beautiful and triumphant day! After four weeks and four days the 20 x 20 garden has been tilled. Now time to amend the sandy soil with some compost, recharge, and compost tea on the next day free. Followed by fencing and finding a straw bale source, for mulch and row walk ways. A few more weeks maybe until the soil warms up :)

March 10th, Spring is on the way and the new garden plot is taking shape!

Plenty of pictures to come of the progress around the farmhouse. From an update on the raised beds, to the orchard. Much work to be done still as spring starts to set it.

March 5th view of the cutting board before dinner. Only the Cilantro was grown by us (raised beds through winter, the plants have been cut 10+ times and still growing strong!), but one day the Broccoli, Carrots, Cauliflower, and Garlic will be thriving in the raised beds and 20 x 20!

February 27th Orchard with garlic and compost/mulch cover.

February 27th Fuji Apple with garlic cloves and Recharge sprinkled over the mound before being covered over.

March 9th our new Elberta Peach tree is mounded and planted with 10 garlic cloves!

March 9th view of the Broccoli, Cauliflower, and Cilantro bed, nitrogen deficient plants signified by the yellow leaves on the Cauliflower.

March 9th update on the Garlic bed

March 9th eye test. Seriously, there are a few rows of French Breakfast Radish planted in one of the partitioned areas and Detroit Dark Red Beets in the other. At the moment it appears about 50% of the radish have peaked above soil level.

March 9th update on the 20 x 20. Our hand chair arrived with the compost and is patiently waiting to be placed in the garden.

March 9th Pineapple Sage and Thyme plants we are attempting to establish. Covered in compost and black plastic mulch (slowly cutting it back as the plants grow), using extra planters to make watering easier on the sloped mound.