Mini-Farm, Take 1: 2105 Mini Farm!

On November 6th of 2014 I cut the last of the Brussels sprouts, shoved some garlic in the ground, brought in the hoses, and bid my first mini-farm adieu. And left it a ridiculous mess as the polar vortex headed our way and I hadn't the time or energy to properly pull and till it. Spring would require twice the work. And it did.

I was pleased to see the raised boxes survived the winter when the snow finally melted in March, but as soon as the snow receded, weeds started popping up in a few of them. In April after weeding 4 beds, I heard someone interviewed on the radio recommending tarping your growing area to block out the sun and keep the weeds from germinating, so I tarped the remaining two beds, the ones with the most weeds.

In the four weeded one I got to work and discovered garlic from the fall was actually coming up. I'd pushed about 75 cloves into the dirt on the afternoon that we were supposed to start a long-term overnight frost period, and I was fairly certain they would not do well going straight into dirt and frozen into a popsicle, but they came up so vigorously in April, it was as if I did exactly what they needed. I was amazed.

Also I had onions coming up big and strong. What? Onions are not, to my knowledge, a perennial. There were a bunch that were tiny and had never grown in the end of the summer when I harvested the onions and I figured they'd break down and become nutrients for the next round. Nope. These guys were coming back with a vengeance.

After the tarps had been on the other beds for 2 weeks, I pulled them back to find that all the weeds had died, except one particular type, which was huge and strong.

I don't know what it is, but it may be in the dandelion family. However, its taproots are longer, stronger, and wider than any dandelion I've yet come across, and these monsters go over a foot down, looking like massive, branching carrots. I hate them and the curse words that fly out of my mouth when I'm digging them out can sometimes be embarrassing. I swear a lot when cooking, playing games, and sometimes when crafting, also. Concentration brings out the potty-mouth in me.

So! Last year I learned it's not enough to add all new compost and plant your veggies, you have to mulch to keep the weed seeds from germinating. I gave up on the weeds early on last year, and I don't want a repeat t his year. Luckily, my local village offers free wood chips for mulch on their Public Works property and I made a trip over with a few 30-gallon containers. With one bed mulched, my brother came over to help me with Project #2 for the spring: digging up a perimeter around the house, installing a butterfly habitat on half, and mulching all the rest. We got the 40-foot length of the north side of the yard done, where it never sees direct sunlight and only hostas and mint thrive. (And creeping Charlie, which is starting to grow on me... no pun intended.)

I got started on the south side of the house on my own last Saturday, drove to the Village to get mulch, and as soon as I pulled up there was a loud pop and I saw wood chips fly off away from my car. I got out to see that my tire was flat. My not-so-old tire.

I looked around and there was a sharp, metal spike sticking out of the ground, almost invisible in the dirt, gravel, and wood chips. Clearly there had been a sign here at one time and it probably got hit, but they left the sharp bottom of it in the ground to kill tires.

A distance away was an orange cone, fallen on its side. Hmmpf.

Once again, my brother to the rescue! He changed my tire and we hung out together at the local tire shop while they put a new tire on my car. (BTW, the village would not reimburse me for this, but they did promptly remove the metal spike from the ground so it wouldn't happen again.)

Back to work! The perennial butterfly habitat was about to happen! I'd been to a local nursery and gotten a good, lengthy lesson on milkweed, butterflies, and creating a habitat. It was not enough to plant milkweed for the monarchs, I needed to plant wide, flat flowers for them to land on that would provide nectar for them to eat. The milkweed was only half of the requirements. I learned stuff! She recommended I put in coneflowers, daisies (my favorites!!) and other long-blooming natives that would feed them.

Delphinium in!

Daisies in!

Coneflowers in!

And butterfly weed! Three of them. (At $10 per plant I was not ready to fund much more than that.)

All down the depth of my house in the front half are butterfly perennials, and there is a teeny-tiny lilac bush in the back, outside my bedroom window.

In a few days I came back and added mulch to the missing area to make the perimeter complete. Good luck butterflies!!

Then the veggies!

At a local farmers market I picked up a small pack of corn. I don't know why. I've never grown corn before. But with it in my possession I decided to try the Three Sisters method, but with zucchini instead of winter squash, and snap peas instead of beans.

Then I bought a pack of corn seeds. I have no idea what I was thinking, but apparently this year I want corn.

And lettuce. And peppers. And tomatoes. I'm not wasting time and space to grow broccoli that will just go to flower before I can harvest it, or Brussels sprouts, which are still in my freezer. I got more green beans and more peas this year, and directly sowed the nasturtiums and sunflowers, though if you ask me where they are, I can't tell you because I don't remember. From this point on, it will be a surprise.