My Quest for Easy Green

About two years ago, I was really into a show called, "It's Not Easy Being Green". It was about the experiences of the Strawbridge family, located in Cornwall, in England. (I know, I sound very American.) Anyway, it was on the Green channel, when the Green channel actually played shows about green living. I moved, canceled the Green channel and stopped following the show. Recently, I was surfing the internet and decided to look the Strawbridge family up to see what they've been doing. While it appears James and Dick have gone on to make additional seasons of the show for the BBC, the two ladies of the household have decided to pursue other endeavors. I found the show to be charming, and frankly, their quest to live a greener life on a farm was an influencing factor in my decision to move to a farm. It just looked so fun and interesting.

I don't regret the decision to move to a farm, but, I will admit I haven't had time to pursue some of the cool projects they have tackled in their time on their farm, which they call Newhouse Farm. I suppose I'm writing this to add a reminder to my written documentation that I do need to renew my efforts to look at things like solar power, wind energy, greenhouse gardening, etc. So there you have it. Abrupt huh?

The Weeds Had Time and I Didn't

The title of this post pretty much sums up the year for my 2010 garden. After a year of gardening adventures and hard work in 2009, my wife insisted, "We will have a much smaller garden this year!" To which, I promptly disagreed and said that I would do all the work. Yeah...

So, I charged ahead, even going as far as to till up an extra patch of land on my five acres where I could plant sweet corn and zucchini and squash. I immediately got behind in planting. While I did eventually get all the plants and seeds in the ground, it was so late, it was questionable if some would have a chance to mature. We got pretty adventurous trying to plant lima beans, brussels sprouts, eggplant, etc. These all preformed as expected. (They didn't) But the real story this year was WEEDS! About the time plants really started to come up the rains came. Great right? Little seedlings need water right? Not if the rains last for about two weeks straight and keep you from weeding around your tender little seedlings. Killer competition.

I swallowed my pride and my wife called in the big guns, the in-laws, who came over at one point and tried to help me get a handle on the mess that was my garden. They brought a big tiller and some serious will-power, but, just when I thought I'd get ahead of this fine crop of weeds, the rains started again. To cut to the chase, I lost. The weeds won. While I got a decent share of some vegetables, and learned the lesson that your garden doesn't have to be perfect to produce, I also learned that if you really, really want to thrive, not just survive off your garden, you have to STAY AT IT, rains or no rains!

I'll be spending my winter figuring out ways to work smarter, not harder.

Homesteading 101

In the interest of full record keeping. I also spent time this weekend planting trees around the farm and pasture. I put a couple Weeping Willows in down by the river. I hope the deer or other critters don't get them. Those will be very cool if they are allowed to grow up unmolested. Little H.B. and I put in six hybrid poplars on some high ground in the pasture. Three blue spruce were planted to stabilize a steep bank in the pasture as well. I also put one Bald Cypress in on the yard. It is questionably hardy in this zone, but, if it makes it, it should be very dramatic. All the trees are tiny little twigs at this point, but, if they take hold, I'm looking forward to seeing them grow big and strong. Who says there are no trees in Iowa?