Sustainable Gardening

[MissingWillow]

We've had our hobby farm for a few years but this is the first year we've been able to manage more than just container plants.  We put in 12 raised beds, with 4 more planned.  My husband, who is a genius, built our greenhouse.  They delivered all the pieces on a flatbed trailer with no instructions.  That was a total freakout day!  We eventually received them, all 2 pages...  Anyhoo - one year later and we've got a functioning greenhouse.  We use it as a season extender, it's too expensive to run year round.  



We're growing hopi squash I received from a friend in New Mexico.  We harvested our first one this morning, can't wait to see how it tastes roasted.  




Our back deck is full of tomato, cucumber and hot pepper plants in pots.  



We also raise shiitake mushrooms. 




We have two hives of bees to keep everything pollinated.  The honey is a very nice benefit to keeping bees for pollination!




We also have a small herd of sheep and dairy goats.  I milk twice a day and make cheese every week.  Here is Beatrice right after being shorn.



We love our little farm, thanks for looking!

[tynwia]

Wow you are busy!!!! You have a beautiful place. I love goats

[MissingWillow]

Thanks Tynwia.  We ARE busy, but we like it that way!  Baby goats are the cutest things ever.

[parallax]

That's lovely and amazing! I dream of having a similar situation some day...where-ish do you live and how much more of a growing season do you get with that green house? I live in upstate NY and our growing season is just too short for me. Well for the veggies that I love, root veggies grow for a long while here.

[MissingWillow]

Thanks much, Parallax. We're in SW Virginia (ex-upstate NY residents!).  You've probably got awesome soil vs. our clay, thus the raised beds.  We run the greenhouse down mid-October thru December and fire it back up early April for about 6 weeks.  We hope to add some permanent beds inside the greenhouse to try growing a few cold season crops January thru March without heating it.  Right now, we've got a few baby pools in there for lettuce and spinach over the cold months.   

[muddy21]

What a lovely place - looks like your hard work is really paying off!

[Knickertwist]

You are my hero. That is exactly where we want to be at in a couple of years. How big is your place? How difficult are is it to keep bees? What did you plant? I have a million more questions but I don't want to bombard you

[MissingWillow]

Thanks Knickertwist, and feel free to PM me as we've apparently arrived at your destination!  We have 15 acres, half in pasture.  We had to re-buy bees this year because ours didn't make it over last winter.  As we understand, we're not the only ones who had losses because last winter was a very bad one.  This is the first year we've had a honey harvest.  We've got 8 varieties of heirloom tomatoes, 7 kinds of hot peppers, 2 kinds of melons, french breakfast radishes, pumpkins, zucchini, 3 kinds of cucumbers, sweet potatoes, rutabagas, garlic, sunflowers, horseradish, asparagus, ginger, leeks, carrots and herbs planted.  I sell excess produce at our farmer's market, along with shiitake mushrooms, honey, fleece and handcrafted soap.  Life is good! 

[dropoffradar]

i adore your goats so cute, even cuter when they get rowdy and chase eachother around!    i too want to be in a similar place someday. i am addicted to the book 'backyard homestead', and i eventually want to be able to live off of my own land. right now i only have a vegetable garden, but this is my first year trying, and im not even close to being able to buy land right now, haha.

anyways, everything looks great! you guys did a wonderful job on the greenhouse and everything looks tidy and organized.  i want to come over and do some cartwheels, i have hardly any space at the moment and you have so much room!  

[nat_attack]

beautiful!!! you are seriously living my dream!!! too bad i seem to kill every plant i touch! your farm is fantastic, i love your animals too!! you are an inspiration