In general I prefer gardens over grass. I love to color, the whimsy. I want the butterflies and worms. The smells. I want to be in the garden during the summer, it is a place of joy.
TRASH
When we moved onto the property we had a quarter acre section between the lagoon, a hedgerow or windbreak, open farm ground and our yard tree row. This section had a few things going on at once. Standing water in one area, trash pile with a mattress, other bedding and half covered in dirt and other piles of ground. To top it off, this was all covered in head tall weeds. In the spring of 2023 we had a friend come to help us level the ground. We did bury some of the trash, we loaded and hauled other trash away, then he pushed all the piles into the low spots and evened out the grade. This was flat, but we still did’t have a plan for it.
I wish I had some great pictures of this area, but it never occurred to me that those pictures would be valuable to others.
DIRT
We now had even ground that got great sun and happens to be fairly close to our well. Cole thought it would be a great place for a garden. We agreed to till up a small patch, come to find out that the previous owners seem to have stored gravel in the same area. It shouldn’t be a surprise. So now we have compacted soil filled with driveway gravel rocks.
GARDEN
We used this patch of ground to grow our first garden here at the property. Thankfully we had a few loads for wood chips to help mulch the area. We got a green garden. Flowers, tomatoes, onions, potatoes, cucumbers, zucchini… but we have a long way to go. None of our crops did amazingly well. We had a lot of pests. All expected and yet disappointing.
SOIL
Over the summer of 2023 I got into information regarding permaculture. By that I mean – I watched YouTube videos on the subject daily. Some of the most helpful information I learned has been about soil. I am now someone who thinks more about the soil in a week than most people think about it in a lifetime. As we go, I hope to share more about the soil, how we revive it and the goals we have for the future.
GRIT
This might be the place where we are most passionate: redeeming land.
We love redemption. We have tasted it in our lives and we know that we are created to redeem the land we are given.
It takes grit to clear hedgerows and put in fence. It takes grit to take rock hard dirt and tend it into a thriving environment that can support a full garden.
