Living in a new house on land that has never been gardened before brings it’s own challanges.  When I look back I see just how much we’ve accomplished in this past year.  Unfortunately there are still things that were on the list way back then that are not done.  Like painting the garage!

The vegetable garden is growing and the greenhouse is packed with vegetable starts waiting.  I pushed the envelope this year in regard to setting out plants.  Who knew we would have a biting cold wind along with show fluries in late April.  My best guess for the last frost date was April 15, I’ve now moved it out to April 30th.

Neighbors and friends have donated wood shavings for mulch and carpet for the walkways.  The white stuff in the distance is plastic attached to the deer fence.  It worked fairly good to stop the wind from blowing everything over.  But when is blows 35 MPH and is 37 degrees….well you get the idea.

Though I’m not a particularly tidy gardener, my garden doesn’t need to be weed free or organized to perfection, I do like things in rows with the goal of appealing to my eye.

Another friend donated the white PVC irrigation pipe which I hung inside the greenhouse.  My water system is gravity fed and there is enough umph in the water pressure to use this system.  It works pretty good but everything gets totally wet.  I still prefer to hand water once a week.

Finally we’re comming along nicely on the Stockade for the Chicken Moat.  I got the idea for the chicken moat from this link.  All  the materials except the nails and roof supplies have been scrounged.  I figure this chicken house needs to hold 50 birds, half of which will be butchered 60 days after I get them from the hatchery.

Here is a great link that talks about building with recycled wood pallets.  I’ve found that most are free and that there are many kinds of pallets out there for the taking. 

All in all, we are busy and I am finally beginning to get the feeling that I live here.  Up until recently it has felt like we were vising the as time goes by and we make progress, I feel more settled.

Remember, since it is the first of May it is time to plant some lettuce.  Happy gardening!

A final note, it is the kittie’s birthday.  They got a new set of ping pong balls to play with and each had their own can of ‘wet’ cat food.  They didn’t like it!