Spring on the Farm at Oran Mor

Good morning! We just finished up all the morning chores… chickens, ducks, and geese are out. Guinea keets have been tended, fed their organic starter grains and probiotic supplements. They are so cute, those little tiny baby guineas. The guinea eggs we are incubating have been turned and my favorite chore – the goats have been milked! Pearl is making breakfast of fresh turnips and eggs for community breakfast and I thought it would be nice to share some photos of the garden.

Motherwort in bloom, will soon be harvested for tincture.

Squash, Tomatoes, Peppers, Okra, Sweet Potatoes, & Cukes ready for the ground.

The rock bench below our Bradford Terrace gardens where we are growing greens, potatoes, bergamot, and elderberries.

Dale Gardens – growing tomatoes, basil, onions, kale, cilantro, and other greens.

Arugula flowers in another green bed.

A greens bed growing lettuces, mustard, and arugula.

Our many, many elderberry bushes are blooming!

We have been using our cob oven a lot this Spring, delicious pizzas!

There you have it.. hope you enjoyed a small taste of what’s going on here at the farm. I will update soon with some photos of our animals and more of the gardens once things get a little bigger. We have lots of corn, squash, and cukes in the ground and so much more to be done! Fun on the farm never ends.

What are you growing this year?

What’s Growing in the Apartment Garden

Spring is here in full swing and the garden is full of bounty and beauty! I’m so thrilled that I took the time to go out in the cold of fall and winter and throw seeds around here and there, because so many of the babies I planted are coming up now! Many varieties of annual plants can overwinter their seeds in the midwest and then they are the first to come up in the Spring. I threw around lettuce, arugula, marigolds, and morning glory among other things…

lettuce patch next to our patio

lettuce patch #2

lettuce patch #3

We thinned one lettuce patch and all of our little heads of lettuce made it. They did lose some outer leaves, but they are going strong! Notice the weeds growing all over our garden… I like to leave the weeds until I decide to thin or plant something in it’s place because they are there for a reason. Weeds grow to put nutrients into the soil and having something covering the ground is a really good thing. Whenever I pull the weeds, I either lay them down on the ground or turn them under to decompose.

baby cilantro

dry birdhouse gourds

I grew these last year and now it’s time to drill holes so the birds can use them. Then I’ll preserve them with clay, decoupage, or paint… haven’t decided yet.

beautiful soapwort

radishes

Our radishes are growing so fast this year!! Last year it took forever because the soil at our apartment complex was mainly compact clay and rock. We practice no till methods so we just put some manure, straw, and compost on top of the soil. The simple act of building the earth a couple inches and growing things in it (including weeds) has made a fluffy, delightful soil in just a couple years!

Our new neighbor planted zinnias!

kale going to seed

We planted these dwarf kale in late Spring and reaped the bounty of them throughout the Fall and WInter. Now they are going to seed and the little flowering tops taste just like broccoli!!

Although our apartment management is incredibly pretentious and closed minded about many things, I am forever grateful to have the opportunity to grow a beautiful garden here! I truly believe that almost any apartment management would be willing to allow tenants to BEAUTIFY the garden spaces. Without the flowers and plants, this place would be so dull! I recommend that anyone interested in gardening and living in an apartment should ask the management if they can beautify their home. The worst that can happen is a no. Go for it!

Rejoicing in the Springtime

Spring is here and the beautiful, perfect days just keep coming!!! We keep having these amazing mornings that start off with a light rain and then all afternoon we are blessed with a warm sunny day, and sometimes we get another rain or thunderstorm at night. Thank you mama nature!

We have lettuce popping up all over the garden, thanks to my throwing old seeds all over the place just for fun. The other day I went out and thinned them and was actually able to save every single one and they are growing so happily!

valerian – a wonderful herb

Valerian is a unique herb whose roots are used as a natural sedative and body / mind relaxer. The aroma and flavor are fantastic! I will let this grow all spring summer and harvest some of the root in the fall.

delicious cabbage!

Today I made a little ladybug friend. She was climbing up the radish sprout and it was oh so cute!!

I’m so excited to be gardening again and I know this year is going to be GREAT! I learned a lot from last year and will be able to plant even more in our small apartment garden this year. Yay!! We’ll be incorporating more vertical gardens later on this spring, so stay tuned!

What have you started growing so far?