New Life in the Woods

Well, every day in every way my garden gets better and better. I thought you’d all like to see the newest area that I’ve cultivated with the plants in place and mulch around nearly everything. The seedlings are both from the local farming coop and from those I started from scratch at the cabin. The big ones came from the coop. There is too much shade at the cabin for the seedlings I started to have grown much, even in the 6 weeks I’ve been nursing them along. But they are out in the soil now and should get at least 6 hours of full sun most days going forward.

These pictures are dark because it was nearly 9 p.m. when I knocked off work yesterday. The mulch you see (the dark soil around the plants) was all dug up from the forest between the main house and the cabin. It was a long process to collect, sift out all the big branches, pine cones, rotten wood, etc., that generally litter the surface, but the results should be worth it. I am hoping it will help retain more moisture in the soil and provide some fertilizer for the plants. I mixed some in with the clay soil too before watering and planting the seedlings. Then I watered some more. Just have to hope it is enough. The rows you see are about 50% tomato plants with a bunch of sweet pepper (plus 2 hot pepper), eggplant, squash, and cucumber towards the back and around the sides. The acorn squash should be able to spread out and hopefully the cucumber will climb the fences.

I didn’t do any more work on the garden today because it was supposed to be a scorcher (got up to 94 degrees in the low lands today) and everything was watered yesterday. Today was supposed to be partially cloudy and, surprise, it rained a bit in the late afternoon and evening. It was mostly scattered showers, but every bit helps!

I tell you, I have a much greater appreciation for what the settlers went through clearing land and turning it all over by hand. I even had to “rough it” a bit for a while without plumbing and electricity. I still can only barely imagine what it would be like to cope with all of that all at once, without adequate shelter to boot! Of course, they got into great shape on the trek out West (or else didn’t make it at all), if they weren’t at the start. Still, walking muscles aren’t the same as digging muscles and I am sure their first years were very, very hard. I definitely sympathize much better now, but I still can’t imagine cutting all the firewood needed with hand saws! (Yes, I’ve tried cutting some wood with a bow saw recently. Hard work!) Despite my adaptability and all my various skills, I think I would have perished had I tried to homestead alone before modern conveniences. You definitely want another person at the other end of that saw pulling while you push.

So, the garden is all but done. I still need to work on the fence and plant a few more things. I’d really like to bury the whole area in mulch to keep as much water in the ground as possible, but I can keep working on that over the Summer. For now, I mostly just need to keep it watered, deal with pests, and weed occasionally. Next project (besides finding work) is to build a shed for my firewood for next year. I have all the trees cut for it so I just need to find the right spot and throw it together. I’d like to put a “shake” roof on it, but not sure yet whether I will be able to make the shakes myself or will just end up buying them once I find work. Once I have that done, maybe it will finally be time to build the chicken coop that I talked about so long ago. I am definitely “getting back to the land” here!