If April showers bring May flowers our property should look like the Dallas Arboretum by Memorial Day! Unfortunately the deluge of showers we’ve had have not been that of hydration but showers of tribulation for extended family where we made the choice to delay our projects to be there for these close friends. The greatest gift we can give ourselves is to give of ourselves to others. In March I wrote a post titled “Framily” In that post I explained some of what our friends have been dealing with. Health issues and traumatic injury take time to heal and more often than not it takes more time than you would think. Unless of course it is happening to you or it is something you have personally dealt with before.

While we were able to get a strong start on some of our homestead projects, we are behind the schedule we had planned for what needed to be done. In hindsight this may have been a blessing. Usually the garden and plans are left up to me and once we got out there Kevin was, to my surprise, voicing some suggestions that really work out and the original plans have been altered a bit. He gets to play on a machine to accomplish some of this. That’s probably why he is happy about the changes. I was finally able to stake out the perimeter of the backyard fence. It is important to me to have a dedicated YARD space with nice grass and perennial beds for the Siberian Iris’s that came from my grandmothers gardens via Moms gardens. The beautiful Bearded Iris’s that came from Miss B’s gardens and the gorgeous Lily’s that came from our friends gardens many years back. These roots have been in spaces spread all over the property and I want to have them in one cohesive area where we can honor and enjoy them. Maybe even be able to pot some up to sell or give away to be enjoyed by others. Staking out this area was not an easy task for me. I AM NOT GOOD AT MATH! This is not a surprise to those that know me but when you are not good at math and your husband is but can not teach it frustrations mount. Especially when you (me) want to learn how to do what is being done. I just didn’t understand this 3-4-5 rule which because of the area quickly became numbers like 15-20-25 or more. I had to go inside with paper, pencil and ruler and draw this out for my brain to finally “get” it after which time I was completely upset because had a teacher at some point in my life had me do this, a lot of other things would have made sense to me. On a positive note my brain is working and I learned something new.

Our battle with sassafras saplings continues. This year however I think a lot of the roots will be dug out deep with the help of a lovely little machine. For now we have done what we can with a hand shovel and a good pair of hands. We made some final decisions on the placement of some vital structures going in and pulled up the old raised beds that where so surprisingly (insert sarcasm) not square to the soon to be fence line I so carefully staked out. These beds have no rhyme or reason to size other than that the lumber retailer gave me a great deal on the boards because the ends were all messed up and they were all odd sizes no one else wanted and he wanted them off his lot. They are cedar and I, at the time, didn’t care if the sizes matched. Those beds were in for about 7 maybe 8 years. 2 inch thick boards some 6 inches wide some 8. With the new garden plan having all the beds nice and neat the same size and placed in a specific pattern the old ones had to move and move they did. With the help of some of the kids Kevin moved them to the area next to our driveway where we used to have a horseshoe pit that hasn’t been used in quite a few years. The beds are turned now so the side that had been sitting on the ground for the past 7/8 years is now facing up and the fresh side down so we can get another 10 or so years out of them. These will be planted with runner squash, melons and pumpkins. The area is big enough and the tendrils can run without being disturbed. I may need to put up a chicken wire fence around it though as we have rafters of wild turkeys that roam and forage. If the vines go next door to the neighbors wooded area I will have to ask her then if she is ok with it and offer her some on the fruits of our labor when the bounty comes in.

As far as the new garden is concerned I measured once, twice probably with all honesty twenty times trying to get it right as I was seeing it in my mind. I have taken inspiration for the layout of our new garden from the garden of Jessica and Jeremiah Soward of Roots & Refuge Farm. I will put links to their pages below so if you want to check it out you can. She is pretty amazing. After looking into a number of different raised bed options we’ve come back to the same retailer and are purchasing the cedar boards once again. Well worth the investment and peace of mind knowing nothing will leach into to the beds that may not be good in the long run. They will cut them to length for us and once we get them here we just have to place them and attach them together and the fun can begin. The soil that was in the old beds has been transferred to where the new beds will be. It is currently up in piles down the center of the measured space for the beds. We got a good chuckle out of it looking like we have 4 very large graves in the backyard. Today it is supposed to rain heavily so while I am in having my coffee and writing this post Kevin and our son Gabriel are moving soil from an old compost/mulch pile to fill the beds that were moved to the front side yard. (I get to get away with this because I am also cooking breakfast while they are out there.)

The dozen chickens we got back in February have their true feathers now. They have been moved out to the old chicken coop and are in a nice small area but will soon be growing out of that space so construction on the new coop has to start very soon. I hope to start introducing them to the outdoor weather if the rain this week isn’t too bad but we will have to wait and see. We are in New England after all. It could be snowing in the morning and 70 in the afternoon. There are changes in style and placement from the old coop to the new one. We, well I, learned a lot about that in the years we’ve had backyard chickens. The old coop will still serve us well as a garden/potting shed and also a space for future brooding for our meat birds. The area is easily collapsible and will have a shelf built above it for storage of tools and other things for the garden like pots, watering cans and buckets.

Breakfast is ready and I just called them in so it is time to sit and eat. So It’s goodbye for now.

Happy Homesteading! xo

Here are the links I promised for you to check out Roots & Refuge Farm. I hope you take the time to look at their channel/pages it is well worth it. I find Jessica to be a plethora of information on gardening. Her happy go lucky personality and big smile is infectious and I just enjoy her very much.

YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTZN3HhejW1tOiRdLGUCGGA

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/roots_and_refuge/?hl=en

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/rootsandrefuge/