Shepherd’s Flock Farm Garden – Before and After

Part 1: Creating raised beds and planting

Kate Payne de Chavez

If you look back through the blog posts, you can see some photographs of work we did along the lake in early spring before we could really get out into the garden.   It was too cold and the ground was too tough for us to get out and plant our veggies, so we satisfied ourselves with cleaning up the winter’s debris and waiting for the daffodils to bloom.   It was our way of getting out of the house and back to the farm.  

We have quite a bit of work to do to get this place back to the level of early successes that Mama and Papi had a few years ago, so we’re working together as a team to draw up a plan.

In late April and early May the ground was finally soft and dry enough to work, so Jhan and I talked with Mama and Papi about what they wanted in terms of garden beds.   We decided on beds that were approximately 4’ x 10’ and 4’ x 12’ (with a few oddly shaped beds here and there; the garden isn't exactly rectangular due to a little stream bed/drainage ditch along one side).   The walkways are generally 3’ or 4’ wide to allow for a wheel barrow to make the journey from the beds to the gate and all the way down to the compost bin.   Jhan and I laid out a grid using butcher’s twine and garden flags, and Jhan and Papi went to work creating the permanent raised beds.   I emphasize the word permanent here, because my poor mother and father have laid out and created theoretically permanent raised beds several times in the past.   Life has a way of running off with our well-made plans, and weeds invade.   That is perhaps a story for another post.   In any event, here you can see the grid lines and Jhan working away on digging out walkways and piling the soil onto the raised beds  (Mama, aka Avis, aka Nana, is in the background tidying up the asparagus bed).

Once the beds were ready, we were more than ready to plant.   We planted lettuces, peas, and beans from seed.   We then went to Skipper’s Greenhouse (here in Carroll County at 2044 Canyon Rd SW) and bought a TON of plants: tomatoes, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, basil, dill, thyme, peppers, and marigolds.   The raised beds are mulched with pine needles from the pine woods on the farm, and as much of the walkways as possible are mulched with wood chips from a local tree-trimming business.   Waste not, want not.         

Around May 25th we had a very late frost, so in these images you can see tarpaulins, crates, bits of pipe, and other random materials that Papi and Jhan used to quickly cover the plants when the frost warning was announced.    Of our 48 tomato plants, I believe we lost only about 6.   We were blessed to lose so few; many of the folks around us (including commercial farmers) had a significant amount of crop damage.   

Stay tuned for Part 2 to see some After pics with the current state of the garden.  

Take care, and God bless!   

Back to our regularly scheduled programming

We are officially going to the Carrollton Farmers' Market on a regular basis.   As of this past Saturday, Mom (aka Nana) and I were manning the booth with delicious veggies for all.   We took bunches of basil, thyme, and mint, broccoli heads and florets, Hungarian wax and jalapeño peppers, Elephant garlic, and green beans.   Though it wasn't as much as we'll be offering later on in the season, we were happy to see all our friends at the market!

We cut our herbs fresh the morning of market.   

This is our lakeside patch of wild Spearmint.

Papi dug the Elephant garlic about a week and a half ago. 

The bright green stems are a few stragglers we dug on Tuesday.

Here is our humble little stand at the market, 

complete with a scrapbook of images of the farm compliments of our friends Jim and Brenda

This was our view of the market from the booth.   

The positions are first come, first served.

Back at Shepherd's Flock Farm, Papi and Jhan have been catching up on mowing after two weeks of rain (Khalil "helps" drive the tractor).   We're also trying to clean out old canning jars to prepare for the MANY tomatoes to come!   

   

Papi and Khalil on the tractor mowing. 

Canning jars waiting for a final rinse in the sink.

We're hoping for LOTS of veggies to can come fall.

Mostly we're just trying to make progress and keep cool with this heatwave. 

Thanks for visiting us here at Shepherd's Flock Farm.   Next up will be pictures of the garden in full swing.   And next week stay tuned for more pics of our trip down to Peru.   Thanks, and God bless!

Thanks be to God

It’s Thanksgiving Day again here at Shepherd’s Flock Farm, and I have to admit, I’ve got so very much to be thankful for this year.   I’ve been reading a lot of great online material from the Polyface Henhouse gals to some of the urban homesteading greats over at Root Simple, and I’m drinking in every word.   To be sure Shepherd’s Flock is squarely somewhere in the middle of these two self-reliance worlds, so I also enjoy Mother Earth News, a publication that has a bit of something for everyone.   As I sit here smelling succulently roasting turkey and freshly baked double chocolate layer cake, I can no longer resist the urge to sit down and dabble at writing something of my very own to share this wonderful place with the folks out in the blogosphere.   

When my folks purchased this piece of land some fifteen or so years ago, I have to admit I think we all thought that it would be a vibrant business just a few years into the experience.   For a time they had things really cooking, with pastured poultry and a large hand-tended vegetable garden.   Between the local farmers’ market and a co-op up in Canton, it seemed like the business was well on its way to being a complete success.   I was off on my own adventures in Delaware and then Massachusetts (with some time in Perú for spice), and the folks seemed to be happily living out their dream.   Despite appearances, smooth sailing was not to be had, with my Grams suffering through a battle with cancer and moving in to assisted living, weekly trips to the farmers’ market were quickly replaced with many, many trips (and tanks of gas) to visit with her or to talk with doctors at the hospital.   Grams is a fighter, and my Aunt Jobie was in many ways the hero of that tale, keeping finances and documentation in order and visiting Grams daily.   All the same being away from the farm still took its toll on my folks’ ability to keep things rolling here.

Grams is doing pretty darn well now and living in a facility closer to Aunt Jobie’s home, so on that front things have quieted down a bit.   My husband Jhan and I have decided to move to this area and raise our son Khalil in this rural, simple home, so together with my folks we’re embarking on a wondrous, strange, and new adventure in homesteading.   In many ways, this is why I think it so important now to reach out and connect with other folks who have a similar love and appreciation for living off the land while not entirely rejecting modern amenities.  

I find myself thankful that my folks, now in their sixties, are no longer alone on this land, that they can share in the simple joy of my son’s discovery of the world or laugh when he throws tantrums, that we can work as a family to open new spaces for growing veggies and tending flocks of broilers and laying hens and maybe even some goats, pigs, or cows, eventually.   I am thankful that we can sit down to an awesome, delicious meal together on an unseasonably warm November day and that we can drive just an hour away later this evening to share dessert with my brother, his wife and kids, and our extended family.   I am thankful that the greenhouse-hothouse is nearly finished save the plastic skin that will zip it up tight for the first flurries of winter and that the garlic is planted and the main garden is put to bed.   I am thankful that the Lord has blessed us all and brought us together, and right now I am thankful for this opportunity to share it with you, whoever you are out in the world reading this.   Hope you’ll stop back soon to check in on our progress, and I hope you’ll share your thoughts, triumphs, failures, and joys with us.   As we launch into yet another holiday season, may the Lord’s peace be with you and His grace bless and guide each of your footsteps.