I wanted to post this last month but I wasn't finished with it yet.... But I'm ready now. January went by with a blur of rain, wind, busy schedules, cleaning and purging of our house and the teasing breaks of sunshine and mid 50 degrees.
I love January and February for a few reasons, it's still dark, cold, and winter which means we can stay inside and deep clean the house, purge things we don't need, love or use anymore, and plan for the upcoming year. Such as family trips, school projects, kids activities, garden plans and animal goals.
This year will a busy one for sure! Just planning the garden is so exciting! I've been dreaming about what we will grow, where we will plant, and what else we can add or change.
Every year I draw out a diagram of the whole garden layout, it helps with crop rotation, and being able to adjust the quantity of what we are growing. I'm kind of a dork in that I have been looking forward to planning out the garden more than when we planned out the whole holiday season! This is a big deal. We have set some high goals for ourselves this year. We want to grow as close to a year's supply of fruit and veggies as we can. But besides that, to grow more than we ever have and be able to share a booth at a local farmers' market with another mini-farm family. And there's more! The kids and I have joined 4-H and will be taking many of the fresh veggies, herbs, flowers, and even honey from our farm to the county and state fairs this fall, besides the dogs, rabbits, chickens and borrowing some goats and mini horses! More on those next month!
The last few months I have felt a defining of what our farm and family goals will be. There is a family that have become the perfect example of what I hope to accomplish for us, Floret Farm over in Mount Vernon. The first time I saw something about them was in the April issue of County Woman magazine.
I saw this article about their family and their flower farm and was so moved, it was like the heavens opened and the sun shone brighter because that is what I want to do for the rest of my life! Have a family farm that grows flowers, has workshops, hosts weddings, and add to that also a venue for various events besides weddings, an organic garden, orchard, and fresh eggs, dairy and meats. I know wow! But that was it, and since then I have really focused on starting out here, put in the work and in case we don't move this year, I want to use every square foot of this yard and land.
We found these flowers at Fred Meyers before Thanksgiving, the kids and I sat down and wanted to figure out what they are and which ones we want to grow here this year.
We added more wood chips and hopefully by the end of this week, weather permitting, we will have the front beds ready to plant in March and April. I was able to get a great mix of apple and cedar woods that look beautiful and after I get a big load of Tagro to add in we will have a big beautiful retaining garden this year! This area of the front yard is full sun and gets a little shade in the early evening in the summer and mid afternoon in the winter. Right now we have in the ground is iris, dahlias, lilacs, kale, ornamental cabbage, catmint, tulips, day lilies, painted daisies, and Chrysanthemums. We are planting this spring more dahlias, cosmos, zinnias, chocolate cosmos, celosia, sunflowers, wave petunias, another lilac, hollyhocks, snapdragons, marigolds, and more kale, and along the lower bed, we are adding some strawberries, and a few elderberry shrubs. This area will be so bright and cheerful in the summer and fall, I'm really excited about putting it all in the ground and seeing it grow!
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