Community Garden Update 1

Spring has been busy planning the garden and getting everything ready for the gardeners.

Truckloads of three year old composted cow manure were dumped on the garden.

What a wonderful sight!

I spread a lot of it on the asparagus row.

A local farmer brought his Kubota tractor with a rototiller attached and mixed the leaves, soil and composted manure into a beautiful fertile mix.

 

 The asparagus was coming up strong in the 90 foot long row FULL of the delicious spring veggie!

Doctor Rowe's garden is still feeding many people in the village.

Many volunteers came down to periodically cut the asparagus during the past 2 weeks and share it with friends, the elderly and neighbors.  Everyone was thrilled to receive gifts from the garden.

  One afternoon two full bags of asparagus was collected.

 The garden was peaceful looking as we drove away that afternoon.

The weather has really slowed us down in our plans, but it has actually worked out well.

Last week we had 3 freezing cold nights and three frosts. On Saturday it snowed.
Then there were 3 more days of hard, cold rain that caused some flooding in different arts of the state.

Good thing noone planted anything or the extreme weather would of killed it all.

Then this week we returned to start measuring off the individual garden plots.

Cedar posts, stakes and a large ball of twine were donated by our local librarian and her farmer husband.

We quickly made a plan.

Mavis, the Garden Dog, supervised every aspect of the work.

Linda grabbed my measuring tape and a few stakes and measured off the 20 x 10 plots.

 

Cedar corner posts were put in by Brian.

Belinda got control of the big twine ball and started roping off the plots.

Once the rope was up, the garden really started to take shape.

With such great help and enthusiasm, soon there were

8 plots ready to go!

Brian on the edge of the woods putting in the last corner post.

The benefits of volunteering:  picking all the rhubarb and asparagus that is growing.

And the weeds too....

The garden is taking shape.

 Rhubard crisp is in Linda's immediate future.

Belinda likes to eat it raw.   A bit tart, she said.

Asparagus for supper.

400 seed packets were donated by Agway of Montpelier.

Most are organic.

 

Every imaginable kind of veggies, herbs and flowers.

 

It was like Christmas going through all the seeds and picking out different varieties to plant.

Any seeds that are leftover after the gardeners and volunteers pick them over, will be available for anyone in the village that need some.

 

We were all amazed at how it only took 90 minutes to get the plots set up, the 5 posts dug in, the weeds pulled and the ready to eat asparagus and rhubarb picked.

All the gardeners are meeting tomorrow night at 5 pm to pick the plots they want and get the details they need to know and to help put up the deer fencing.

Last Monday Linda and I drove the 80 mile round trip to get a solar charger and the deer fencing.

A herd of 6 deer bed down very near to the garden and we want to STOP their midnight munching madness IN the garden.

We purchased 40, 5 foot fiberglass posts, 200 insulators, 2 rolls of polywire and a solar charger.

Five of us dirt divas met in the cooler evening and started putting insulators on the posts.

Many hands made the work fun and fast.

Then we measured and placed a fiberglass post every 6 feet, all away around the entire garden.

It looked good.

The math came out perfect and we used all of the 40 fibergalss posts that we purchased.

The rest of the fence will go up in bits and pieces as we meet at the garden.

The solar charger goes in next.

Once that part of the project was done, it was time to go thru the seeds with the 2 new gardeners.
They chose one of the bigger plots so will need lots of seeds.

So many to chose from!

Another family wanted a plot so I drove the seeds over to them so they could pick out the ones they wanted to grow.

 

The next evening I went down to the garden and was delighted to see that someone had already planted their plot!

Better yet, they used wooden spoons and forks to mark their rows!!

 What a great idea.

The view overlooking the garden is looking better and better as it all takes shape.

New friendships have already been formed and the creative juices are flowing.

It is going to be a wonderful summer.

Now we just have to raise another $150 to pay off all the deer fencing and buy a few rakes and hoes.
(we haven't been able to find any at yard sales, recycle or anywhere else)

How is your garden growing and have you got any good gardening tips you would like to share ?
~

Snow Storms & Sprouts

Yesterday morning I was axing through the permafrost to find power cords and chopping ice with my favorite garden tools.  There was no electricity to the cow side of the farm.  The fence charger was not making its usual clicking noise and the water tank heater was taking an unnecessary vacation.  The cows were lined up for a drink and I was determined to get them one.     My garden tool is always under my truck seat and I have found hundreds of uses for it over the years. My favorite use is to actually garden with it, but this winter it has helped me dig trenches thru the ice and chop up the ice flows in the water tank.

They all got their drinks and I filled the tank up before I left for work.

And.... checked on the status of their red block of mineral salt.
All animals MUST have salt and this herd goes through 50 lb blocks of salt as well as 50 lb loose bags of red mineral.  Each cow has her preferance.....

Part of this tub is a bit singed from the barn fire.....it was 20 feet away from the barn, the heat was so intense.  Its a momento of a bad memory.

This morning the barnyard was turned into a winter wonderland again with the snow coming down fast and fluffy.

I would rather have it snow than get the miserable rain that other states are getting today.   Since we now have no barns left for the cows to get completely out of the worst weather ( wind and rain ) I pray constantly for just snow!

Apparently I now have a rather large following of church friends, blog pals, village folks, girl friends, relatives, store owners, library guests, tractor dealers, mechanics, animal rescuers and co workers also praying with me.   So.. if you are really wondering why its snowing so much up here in the northeast, its not climate change, its "Prayers for Cows."    Please join in and pray for snow and NOT wind and rain.

The cows and I thank you.

The cows like the snow.  They lay down and chew their cud while it is snowing.
Snow is an insulator and actually keeps the cows warm when it is on their backs.

This is Red Sox Faith.    #1 snow lover.   #1 Red Sox Fan.     Born 4/4/04
She is the reason the BoSox broke the curse.
She desperately wants a Red Sox hat.
She continually gets in my face about it.
Someone told her the Red Sox have a game next week.

Here is the Friday Morning Cud Chewers group. They meet before 8 am and chat and chew for 2 hours.

For those of you who continually ask me how the old Jersey cow, Susan, is doing....she is alive and well.
I discovered she loves those really big thick carrots.
I thought she was deaf and semi blind, but when I showed up with a fat carrot I found, she trotted right over to me and ripped it out of my hand.
I have not been able to find those fat carrots since!  Made a special trip to WalMart and came out empty handed.

Ohh, here she is again, asking for a Red Sox hat.......

By now you should all be very familiar with this nose.
Its Gwen asking for her graham crackers and a smooch.
She's not into hats...

After I watered the cows, counted heads, checked on the calves and fixed a fence, I headed home to shovel.
As I changed clothes I saw I had some visitors around my truck looking for cracker crumbs.  There are several large flocks of all male turkeys that have been recently frequenting the mailbox, my truck and my compost pile.
Handsome brutes.  Always a pleasure to see them or their tracks.

Last weekend I returned to the best indoor Farmers Market in Vermont, in the extra tiny village of Groton, and got another lesson on how to grow nutritious sprouts.

They are all delicious and I tasted every kind of sprouts and shoots!!

And I tasted them in a variety of ways:  just plain by the handful and mixed with cream cheese on a cracker or piece of bread.
Too darn yummy to describe!

As a farmer I have an insatiable desire to GROW things.
Flowers, vegetables, fruits, cows, poultry, you name it and I want to grow it.
Since this winter has been like an evil energizer bunny, I need to grow something NOW!!!!!
So these sprouts have really got my attention.
They come with a demo at the Farmers Market and simple directions, PLUS the personal email address of the CSA farmer if I have questions and an affordable kit which includes a special screen on the lid of a ball jar and 2 kinds of seeds. I chose broccoli and the very tasty peppery radish seeds. I picked my jar from the 3 attractive demo models.

This complete kit was $4.00

I forgot to take a copy of the reasons sprouts are so GOOD for you, but I took a photo instead.  click on the photo to make it bigger so you can read all the great info.

I came home and started my broccoli seeds in the jar and while I was at it, I also started some lettuce seeds I had.

This is what the broccoli seeds looked like this morning..and they have grown even more since the photo!

I am planning on a really fabulous salad in a few days!!

And.....I think I am going to get a few more jars and do a little more mass production!!! 

We are Growing!!!