In the garden

Up until now, right now, this very moment, all of these posts have been copies of the newsletters I send out. I usually try to send a little something once a month, but today I'm trying something different! This might be a long one so grab a cup of coffee and a snack!

Today I want to talk about some of the things going on around the farm. If you've read through the previous posts or the About Niffer's section, you'll know that we recently moved from West Virginia to Tennessee. First, I'd like to say that we LOVE Tennessee. I'm sad it took us so many years to get here. I grew up in West Virginia and I will always be Wild-n-Wonderful (I even have a tattoo to prove it, ha!!), but Tennessee is our perfect match. Is it possible to have a soul state rather than a soul mate?

I think so.

Anyway, we're fresh here and so our farm isn't quite like the bustling farm you'd imagine. But even though we just moved in back in September, we've managed to get along quite nicely. One of our fabulous neighbors tilled up a garden plot for us last fall and again in March. The garden is 28 feet by 128 feet, give or take a few inches.

Neighbor Bob tilling in the fall. And for you car enthusiasts, yes that's a Grand Wagoneer. It's my baby, I named him Charlie aka Charlie Creeper aka Safari Chuck

View from the porch. We surrounded the garden with 7 ft deer netting and used bamboo as the posts. So far we haven't had any critter problems. The neighbors all thought we were crazy "city folk" for putting it up. Hopefully it continues to keep deer out.

The garden has been my biggest focus this spring. Food is important, at least I think so! I really want to succeed and have a fruitful (or vegeful?) garden. I've been spending a lot of my time trying to tackle the weeds to no avail.

One thing I can be thankful for is my bug repellent. I keep it in my pocket and apply as needed. Last week the gnats were fierce. I swiped some onto my bandana, my ears, and the back of my neck to keep them from buzzing around my head. Then I smeared a bit on my ankles to keep the biting bugs away. The lemon eucalyptus oil not only is a great bug repellent in general, but it is also recognized by the CDC as a tick repellent!

My previous experience in gardening has never been anything on this scale. It's really, really overwhelming. I even went as far as to figure the minimum square footage each plant needs and made a two dimensional scale model of each plant and the garden. But what I'm finding is that I can't rely on it totally, and I've been planting every few days as much as I can in that day. I've been planting with companion planting in mind, but I haven't been totally faithful to my model. 

But even though the model isn't being carried out 100%, it's still nice to reference. I went a little crazy when I ordered seeds. I think I ordered one of everything! After spending weeks carefully planning, reading, weighing pros and cons, I placed my order. Then three days later my neighbor stopped by and dropped off a bunch of seeds, many of which I had already ordered. I can't complain, he's so excited to "see young folks want to work the land" he couldn't help himself and got us some seeds.

But now I have to figure out how to make it all truly fit, without the clean lines of my model.

It's coming together. We don't have any fancy schmancy tools, so the going is slow, and except for Bob's tractor tilling, all the hoeing, rows, planting, etc is done by hand. I have a little more than half the garden planted right now. I should be out there now getting something into the ground, but I have all day, right?

Last week after weeding, planting sweet potatoes and strawberries, and watering the front rows. These are all rows I did myself.

This past weekend we planted 4 rows of corn for corn meal. My great and wonderful hubby did all but one row. They're MUCH straighter and uniform than my crazy mess on the other side of the garden.

So far we have two of each 6 different varieties of tomatoes, 3 fatalii peppers, 2  pimentos, 2 pepperoncinis, 2 pineapple tomatillos, lettuce, spinach, beets, 3 different kinds of peas, 6 Jacob's cattle beans, 24 red Mexican beans, 3 zucchini, 3 yellow squash, radishes, Glory of Enkhuizen cabbage, broccoli, artichoke, and Brussels sprouts growing. I'm still impatiently waiting for the cucumbers and corn to sprout. And I still have pole beans and so much more to get into the ground this week. I'm taking it slow though, because while I'm excited to live this life, my body just isn't as eager. The hubby is an over the road truck driver, so the farm is my responsibility all week. I try to get as much done as I can, but I happily accept ALL his help the few hours he gets to be home every weekend.

That's all for today, I better get to work. This Saturday we're scheduled to pick up our first package of bees. So maybe next post will be a buzzing update about them. I'd love to hear back from you! Do you homestead and/or garden? What ways have you used Niffer's All Natural Products to help around your home? I'd love to hear what you're doing or tips and tricks you use in your garden.

Have a great day and enjoy a few pictures from around the farm that I took this morning.