Garden of Eatin'

Welcome to the Garden of Eatin'!

I am so excited to share that our vegetable garden beds are built and ready for planting!

Part of my homestead dream for the ranch, included a good sized portager ("kitchen") garden.

We currently have on the property, blueberries, blackberries, apples, pears, grapes, garlic, fiddleheads, and rhubarb. I am thrilled to imagine the tomatoes, corn, peppers, herbs and cut flowers that we will be able to add this year.

Gardening has become a joyous passion for me, personally, and I find it so inspiring to cook with ingredients that are grown a few feet from our door.

This project was done using locally milled lumber from, Against The Grain in Springvale, Maine. They have a wonderful assortment of cuts and lumber to pick from, including live edge products.

Check them out here:

https://www.facebook.com/againstthegrain207/

We also have the unique ability to utilize an abundant product from our farm... manure!

We constructed the garden beds and then filled them with our own composted horse, sheep, and goat manure. This will need to rest for a little longer before we plant, but it has already turned mostly into a rich soil.

Why does manure work?

Manure is a natural source of various nutrients, especially nitrogen, which is the most significant nutrient for plant growth and health. It also contains various other plant needs, including potassium and phosphorus.

Instead of having to buy these as additives to your soil, manure produces them organically.

Gardening is, no doubt, dirty work, while being quite beautiful at the same time.

I started a few seeds recently, including lettuce, herbs, tomatoes, corn, beans, morning glories, cucumbers, peppers, and pumpkins. We'll see how those do and if we can transplant any to the beds.

In any event, I am planning to include each of the above, and then some. We will be planting a separate pumpkin patch, and adding a squash trellis to the raised bed area as well. One of the raised beds will be solely dedicated to herbs, and I hope to add a number of butterfly and bee attracting florals to encourage pollination around the garden as well!

It is my hope to produce enough for our family, and if possible provide the rest for a small farmstand. Similarly, we are considering offering our manure by the bagful once we finish utilizing it for our needs here.

Check back to see what's growin' on!