Chronicles of the Long Shot Farm

Updated Herb Garden Layout

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Since we installed the greenhouse in the middle of the herb garden last fall,  the former layout of the garden was completely off center.  This weekend, we finally too some time to re-do the herb garden paths so they actually lead to the greenhouse door.  It took quite some digging and moving dirt, but the end result was worth it!  We now have  much broader paths to reach the greenhouse, and still plenty of space for herbs.

By the way, the very cold winter did kill some of the more tender herbs, like the large rosemary we had for three years.  But we already planted new rosemary, and replenished the parsley (curly and flat).

We also added the old tractor part as “yard art” to the herb garden. We found this in one of our fence rows during spring cleaning and had to move it with the tractor – since it is so heavy.  It sort of resembles an over sized bundt cake pan!  We placed it on an old tree stump and will fill it with colorful summer flowers once it gets warmer!

Garden Started with Cold Hardy Plants and Seeds

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We are actually on time this year with planting the early spring garden. For the last two weeks Jeff has been plowing, discing and laying some plastic and we now have the following seeds and plants in the garden:

Brassicas ready to plant

  • 50 lbs of peas
  • 50 lbs of red potatoes
  • somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 onions plants
  • 2 flats of cauliflower
  • 1.5 flats of broccoli
  • and half a flat of Brussels Sprouts
We also doubled the size of our asparagus patch.

Mulching More Elderberries

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We have been planting more and more elderberry bushes along the steep hillside and around the perimeter of the lower pond.  Last fall, we got behind with weed-whipping and a lot of wild brambles started growing up around the elderberries.

This weekend, we thoroughly weeded between all the elderberries, and then added a very heavy layer of wood chips to subdue all weeds and retain moisture.  It looks very “landscaped”, but we hope that it will be easier to maintain this season.  (The forsythia is marking the corner of the elderberry patch)  Hoping for a small elderberry harvest this year!!

Pruning Season

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Concord grapes on a high wire cordon trellis

Chambourcin – spur pruned cordon

Benches in the Greenhouse

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Lars and Jeff spent the day building benches for inside the greenhouse, so that we can start moving plants, grape cuttings and vegetable seedlings outside.

The assembly had to take place inside the greenhouse, since the door is rather narrow – the challenge of course was the fact that they were surrounded by glass 🙂  Nothing happened though, they did great.

Each bench is over 11 ft. long, and has two levels, plus space underneath.  So far, the only plants we moved out were our geraniums, which we overwintered in the cellar (all 50+ survived)