Subsistence Farming Day 2 - In the Beginning...

Forgive the late posting, but the weather was so blissful, we stayed out longer to enjoy it. After all, it is New England and you never know when the rain will come again!

Today was mercifully dry and warm. A perfect day for stripping the sod and beginning the process of digging the temporary vegetable garden which is situated on the north side of the house. Don't worry, there's plenty of good strong sun there, the house's shadow doesn't effect the garden at all. While I reviewed our talking points with the kids today - proper garden prep, organic gardening practices including alternatives to conventional fertilizers and pesticides - Brian laid out the approximately 40'x40' patch.

Despite over a week of rain, the soil was very workable, with no clumping. We are fortunate to have a nice, well-draining soil. We have also just come out of a nasty drought, so the ground really needed the soaking. We showed the children how to strip the sod and weeds from the area, taking care to rake over and remove stray roots and green bits. These were hauled off to the side where they will be composted using black plastic and several weeks of patience.

New England is famous for its crops of stones. We make beautiful stones. They don't do much in the garden, especially for root vegetables. Those larger than a baseball (and there were many!) were piled to one side and will be used elsewhere in the garden as trim for flower beds. The smaller ones were added to the compost pile, where they will likely be screened out later and added to the gravel drive.

After four-and-a-half hours of toil, stopping for a hearty luncheon, we recognize yet another blessing of large families. Many hands truly do make light work - comparatively speaking! Over the next two days, we'll be continuing the clean-up process and the garden prep until both tasks are complete.

Saturday is chicken coop day! We'll be installing a coop that should comfortably hold 2 dozen chickens and hopefully another that will house 10 geese. We hope you'll join us, there's plenty for all to do!

If you'd like resource sheets ($5/set, plus postage) for today's class, email me at nissa.gadbois@navigo-online.com.