And then spring arrived...

Compared to last year, spring arrived 2 (!) months earlier this year. All the snow and ice have melted by now (we note March 11th) and one would make the mistake to start growing vegetables right away. The garlic planted in October is popping up because of the extremely mild temperatures, so this is out of my hands of course. However, I will not start planting any seeds until the middle of May, since we are not completely safe from frost until June 15th.

 

But that doesn’t mean the garden planning hasn’t started. The sunlight not only stimulates the animals, it also tickles my brain to start putting into practice all these ideas that have been growing in my mind during wintertime.

I will focus more this year, not only in my garden. I will have less variety in types of vegetables, but aim for better volumes. The last 3 years we had people who wanted to buy, but couldn´t, because I was sold out... This year we really want to cater to the need of our customers.

Another plan I have, is to merge all the different zones in my garden into one.  Small pathways will make the area perfectly accessible. We would also love to expand the area where we grow our vegetables by  40%.

Last but not least, I wish to increase my livestock (hens) by 150%. The hen house was built for many more!  The buy-in of 3 new hens should help us in expanding our hen family.

Sam, Vera and myself will spend more time in the garden so that we will be able to store the profit better than in the recent years. Our permaculture garden has been producing much more than we could eat! So I feel it is time to use this "profit" in a better way. More about this next time!