{"id":990,"date":"2016-07-19T14:41:14","date_gmt":"2016-07-19T18:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelittlehalfacre.com\/staging\/?p=990"},"modified":"2016-07-22T08:51:53","modified_gmt":"2016-07-22T12:51:53","slug":"homestead-update-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelittlehalfacre.com\/staging\/homestead-update-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"Homestead Update – Part Two"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my last post, I updated some of our projects to let you know how things are going.\u00a0 Here are the rest of those updates –<\/p>\n

The two small terraced beds just above the rock wall have been successful.\u00a0 The first one was planted in early spring with Kennebec potatoes.\u00a0 That was not<\/em> where I wanted potatoes to go but I ran out of room in the main netted garden.\u00a0 The plants produced huge, beautiful potatoes that we are busily eating every day.\u00a0 A fall beet crop has been planted there now and protected with straw mulch.\u00a0 Rattlesnake beans climb the trellis in back and vegetable squash, with seed saved from a squash my brother gave me, grow on either side.\u00a0 Here’s the photo update:<\/p>\n\n

The other small terraced bed was planted with carrots in the spring and we’re now enjoying carrots as they reach four to six inches.\u00a0 This bed was also planted with several Boston pickling cucumbers and one canteloupe in the middle (which isn’t getting enough sun because the carrots are shading it out).\u00a0 We’ve harvested a few cucumbers and the plants are loaded with flowers so we’re looking forward to many more.<\/p>\n

\"Carrots<\/a><\/p>\n

These two small beds (approximately 4′ x 30″) that looked like this last fall when they were being built,<\/p>\n

\"terraced<\/a><\/p>\n

will become the second tree trunk terraced bed this<\/em> fall.\u00a0 I’ll push them back up the hill about two feet so the strawberry bed in front of them can be widened to accommodate the runners they’re putting out.\u00a0 The small straw bale garden growing next to them<\/p>\n

\"Lots<\/a><\/p>\n

will become part of the compost that forms soil for the new terraced bed.<\/p>\n

So — at the end of this whole two-step project — we will have the main netted garden at the top of the hill.\u00a0 Coming down the slope we’ll have two 16 to 18 foot terraced beds on contour – sort of.\u00a0 They won’t exactly follow the very small curve of the hill, but the terracing will still help hold water and allow it to soak into the beds rather than running down the hill.\u00a0 To the right of the last terrace is where the new blackberry patch is growing. At the very bottom of the slope where the rock wall is we’ll widen the existing strawberry bed and then, under the rock wall near the back of the house, we’ll have the two wood raised beds of 16 feet and 12 feet.<\/p>\n

Last, but not least, is the main netted garden bed.\u00a0 The performance here was so-so.\u00a0 Because we had four separate loads of compost hauled in at different times, there was no way to do a soil test unless we pulled a soil sample every two feet.\u00a0 The compost from each load was very different, from the look and smell of it all the way down to the texture.\u00a0 So, basically, I just planted whatever, wherever, and hoped for the best.<\/p>\n

And, because I was always running behind on projects, I lost some things.\u00a0 It was a very sad day when I had to pull up all the broccoli plants – complete with nice heads of broccoli on them – and pitch them onto the compost pile.\u00a0 The cabbage moths had beaten me to the broccoli when they were just small buds.\u00a0 The sad part is, I have perfectly good bug mesh in the garden shed that would have kept the cabbage moths off the plants.\u00a0 Cabbage moths.\u00a0 You know, those cute little white butterflies that flit from plant to plant?\u00a0 Every time they “flit” they lay an egg.\u00a0 G-r-r-r-r-r.\u00a0 So, in the end, I just couldn’t stand the thought of hand picking off all the worms crawling through the broccoli heads.\u00a0 That’s okay – I love putting broccoli out in a fall garden and I’ve already started some seed.\u00a0 And this time, I’LL COVER THE PLANTS WITH BUG MESH!!!<\/p>\n

So, anyway, some things grew very well, some did okay and some were a mistake.\u00a0 I knew the corn was a mistake because we don’t have enough space for much of a crop.\u00a0 On top of that, I was trying to leave the peas in place (where the corn was seeded in) for as long as possible so some of the corn didn’t come up.\u00a0 What I replanted is now three weeks behind the original plants so I may only get three ears of corn out of the whole mess.\u00a0 But, know what?\u00a0 That’s okay.\u00a0 I just wanted to grow my own one time, even if it means we only get a few ears.<\/p>\n

That’s the one thing I will always regret about having this little half acre.\u00a0 I will never be able to grow much corn here – at least not the kind I want (heirloom dent corn with low sugar content).\u00a0 I suppose I could check out the new patio hybrids and, as long as they aren’t GMO (genetically modified organisms — freak science, I ask you!) I may eventually get desperate enough to try growing some of that.\u00a0 My promise was that I would ONLY grow organic, heirloom varieties but . . . no corn????\u00a0 That just may be too much.\u00a0 Here’s the netted garden as it looked then and now:<\/p>\n