(VIDEO) May Homestead Hangout
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Things are going wild inside and outside the garden this month! We share with you the latest developments including surprising game cam footage, wine cap mushroom bed update, and how to keep slugs from eating your plants.
Watch, “May Homestead Hangout” on YouTube >
Grow & Tend
New Quick Beds
After more than six months, the giant hump of blue-tarped topsoil has been moved! Not only is our driveway cleared but we now have two new big garden beds in progress. We thought we’d only be able to complete the driveway bed, but we had enough soil to create another bed around the front and side of the house. You can check out our post on quick beds for all the details, but we are excited to watch the crimson clover grow. Seed is tough to find this season, but we were relieved to be able to purchase a bag from one our favorite suppliers, True Leaf Market. This time next year we hope to be planting herbs such as lavender in these beds.
Patio Garden
This garden has been doing so much better than we expected! Originally it wasn’t even in our plan for this year. But after getting multiple requests to cover growing food in containers and small spaces, we decided to do a real-life demo. The cabbage and peas are big stars so far. Most of the plants in this garden came from another one of our favorite suppliers, Territorial Seed Company. If you watched our last video, Getting Started with Strawberries, you will be stunned at how different they look this month!
Greenhouse
We were skeptical about this greenhouse, but it’s turned out to be a winner so far! We have planted our nightshades (tomatoes and peppers) in the greenhouse and patio gardens. We don’t even try to start our own tomato seeds as our friend and coworker Connie specializes in them - a whole video on that coming soon. You may also remember from last month how we purchased chilli pepper starts from another homesteader in our valley. You don’t hear much about this kind of mutual aid and supportive community, but it’s something we would like to celebrate more. There is something beautiful about people taking personal responsibility for their lives while also helping each other fill in the gaps in knowledge and skill.
Front Garden
The front garden has been struggling a bit. This is our first spring growing in this more mountainous area and we were very hesitant to put our transplants out too early for fear of frost. In an unexpected twist, the weather was in the 80s (summer temps here) the week we tucked them in and as a result we’ve had a lot of bolting - that’s when plants stop growing vegetation and put their energy into flowers and seeds.
We are embracing this learning journey of growing alongside our garden. While we were disappointed not to have spring broccoli, the bumble bees have been delighting in the flowers. This for us feeds the spirit as much as the plant would have fed our bellies.
You may recall way back in October we put in a wine cap mushroom bed. Well we finally got our first harvest! It was just one very large mushroom, and the slugs had already had a couple bites, but we are hopeful that this means there are more to come.
Outdoors & Wildlife
When we first moved to this property, we were a little disappointed that it was relatively small and lacked much habitat diversity. We tried to celebrate the small animals we found, but didn’t expect much wildlife activity. Despite these assumptions we put up game cameras (these cameras are small waterproof units that are triggered to turn on by motion). We were delightfully proved wrong this month by a parade of wild neighbors - both birds and mammals. It’s a good thing we put a good fence around our garden!
Food & Drink
We recently shared our Saturday night tradition - cast iron pizza. We make our own dough and have struggled to get it rise consistently. This month we stumbled upon a solution. Since our seed-starting mats are not in much use this month, they make a great source of low heat for rising dough!
Home & Construction
This month our construction projects were simple but highly effective. Both focused on protecting our gardens from wildlife.
We fenced in our patio garden when the deer seemed to be taking an interest. Originally this was a combo of rebar stakes pounded into the ground with plastic fencing zip-tied to them. When a pregnant deer started getting really interested in our parsley, we added a line of garden wire with plastic flagging tied along the length. So far it’s working!
Sew & Craft
When we planted perennials in our front garden perimeter, we forgot that slugs could be a problem. If you have tried gardening in the Pacific Northwest, this probably sounds laughable. But our slug-prevention program in our other gardens has been so effective that we thought maybe they weren’t as much of a problem out here as our previous urban/suburban garden. We were so wrong! Our littler perennials were nearly killed by these voracious mollusks. So adapted our strategies from the other gardens and create little copper crowns to surround each plant. So far they are working and the plants are bouncing back.
Planning & Mindset
This month Julie read a classic that has been on her list for a long time, “Gardening Without the Work” which was originally published in 1963 by Ruth Stout. She was born in 1884 and didn’t start gardening until she was in her 40s. An independently-minded woman, she created her own system based upon her abilities and observing nature. In this way she unintentionally created a whole movement. The Stout system, as it came to be called, involves lots of mulch and little digging. What was absolutely wonderful about the book is how much of her personality shines through. Whether or not you agree with her methods, her book is a must-read!
In late May we started to feel like maybe we are finally catching up with the garden and learning the rhythm of the season here on this homestead. We are starting to think about what to plant this summer and eyeing the fall/winter seed catalogs that are started to arrive.
Our Favorite Things
Here are some of our favorite brands that you often see in our videos and posts:
Bookshop: http://bit.ly/wildbookshop
Farmhouse Teas: http://bit.ly/wildteas
Filson: http://bit.ly/wildfilson
Mountain Rose Herbs: http://bit.ly/wildmtnroseherbs
Northern Tool: http://bit.ly/wildtool
True Leaf Market: http://bit.ly/wildtrueleaf
XtraTuf: http://bit.ly/wildxtratuf
