A walk in our garden - rewind to April and May

This garden of ours has been a work in progress for five years. It has seen so many variations. When we first moved here, there was a small fenced garden plot we thought we would use but once our tomato seedlings withered to nothing we realized the black walnut tree right next to the garden was not doing us any favors (a lot of plants are not friends with a substance the tree secretes called juglone). 

Our land is on a slope with plenty of wooded area, but not too much cleared space. So we cleared space! (Actually, our kind neighbors with machinery cleared space.) 

Our then 3 year old little guy working so hard! He's 8 now and still quite the worker.

Unfortunately to level the sloped land, some lovely topsoil was pushed away and clay, so much clay, was left in its wake. I remember going down after a nice spring rain once the soil had been tilled (also done by a neighbor's machine the first - and only - time) and I was all set to plant tray after tray of seedlings. But when I stepped into the garden, I sunk into it. Deep. All around was dense, clumpy clay. There was no way any tender vegetable seedling would survive in that. We began the work of amending the soil bit by bit and over the years, with a lot of help from the chickens and most especially the goats, our garden soil is now very happy.  And so are the plants residing there.

This year's garden began back in October, when the garlic went in. On my birthday to be precise. We've had a fun tradition of planting the number of garlic cloves for the age I will be turning that year. So this was the year that FORTY cloves went in. I think this might just be the perfect tradition. Growing older is a wonderful thing. Growing older with more garlic each year? What's not to love. 

This year we were able to start a lot more seeds than ever before in our little 'greenhouse.' Not really a greenhouse at all, but there is light, a lamp, a heating mat and for now it works. Someday, we do hope to have a real deal greenhouse. How to best heat it has been the question keeping us from moving in that direction. 

We get all of our seeds from Fedco, a lovely seed cooperative in Waterville, Maine that specializes in seeds adapted to the Northeast climate and we are also happy to support them because they do not (knowingly) sell genetically modified seeds.

Here they are munching on some lovely spring nettle which gives their milk such an added boost - for them and us!

Our goats give and give. What wonderful creatures they are. The beautiful, rich black gold in the rows of our garden is aged goat manure. Several times a year we muck out our barn and the hay and goat poo sits outside. It sits and sits and sits some more. After a nice long time (usually two years, to make sure the hay seeds are not viable), we dig and dig and dig some more.

Our snap pea teepees 

Helpers come in all sizes. Here is our littlest helper next to the garlic we planted back in October!

Happy little broccoli seedlings

Can you hear me singing "Inch by inch, row by row"? (My kids can and they're getting just a wee bit sick of it!)

With the help of friends, we were able to pull together these mostly kid made and assembled signs. Thanks Shannon and crew!

Adding a nice top dressing of compost to the ever growing plants all around.

Checking for potato bugs. So far, so good!

Coming soon, the June and July garden! Though if the critter munching on our broccoli leaves has his/her way much longer, there won't be a July garden. Ah, the ups and downs of this life and work. We work the land and love the land and sometimes the land gives so much back in return and sometimes there is much more loss than we'd want. The joy lingers though, and the little ones around me are learning so much (and helping so much) that really, no matter what, the land gives us more than we could ever imagine.