Mound garden

My new mound garden. Tried to post this directly from my phone, but for some reason the pictures didn't load.

This is a 24 X 48 foot garden that I've been digging paths in and piling up the dirt on the beds. Both the beds and the paths are 3 foot wide. Most people make 4 foot beds, but I have some trouble getting to the middle of our 4 foot concrete block beds, so I decided to scale these down. The mounds are oriented north to south so they get the most sun. The mounds will be permanent garden beds that never have to be walked on. 

Advantages:

1. Soil is not compacted.

2. Better drainage.

3. Weeds can be pulled and crops harvested even if it has just rained.

Right now it is mostly potatoes. I've got a few tomatoes, some melons and a bed of summer greens planted in it. The greens are chard, kale and an new thing for me "arugula". I'm not done building it yet. I'm thinking about  taking it out another few beds and planting a fall garden in those. When the crops come out, I'll put some compost over them and rake the straw in the paths up on to the mounds to rebuild them for the next season. Then I'll put new straw on the paths. It's more work to set up than a conventional garden, but I won't have to wait on a man to come till it :)

God Bless You All!

Grama Sue (who doesn't do tools with motors)

Markets Are Starting

Markets are revving up! We've been to the Burlington market the last 2 weeks. This week we add two more!

Mondays 3:30-6:30pm  at the Nauvoo C Store (Mini Mart)
Thursdays 5-7:30pm at the Burlington River Front
Saturdays 7-11am at the Keokuk Mall

Next week we will add Tuesdays from 3-6pm at the Quincy Mall

Don't know if we will go to the Hamilton market much this year. Just depends on how much produce we have. It will be at least mid June before we venture down there.

This week's menu:
Rainbow Eggs $3/doz or $2/6-pack
Goose Eggs $4/6 pack or 75 cents each
Cookies $2/6pack
Muffins 50cents
Spinach $3.50
Lettuce $3
Radishes $1
Swiss Chard $2.50
Herbs $1
    oregano, sage, dill, spearmint, lemon balm

Well, I've probably forgotten half a dozen things, so you'll just have to come see what we have!

See you there!

God Bless You All!
~Grama Sue

Burlington Hawkeye

Brag time! We had 7 paragraphs devoted to us in the farmer's market article yesterday! We feel so important! Thank you Hawkeye!

http://www.thehawkeye.com/story/Farmers-Market-050611

God Bless You All!


~Grama Sue

Jersey Heifer!

Score! Grampa has been talking about getting a milk cow for quite a while now. Yesterday he took the lambs to the sale barn and came home with 4 little bottle calves, an one is a Jersey heifer! This little one was born April 5th. Quite a while ago our granddaughter Olivia, who lives in England, asked her Grampa to buy her a cow so Grampa called her today and told her he finally bought her a cow. She gets to name it.

Here's all 4 of the calves. They love to suck on Grampa's fingers. Got them for $35/each! What a blessing!

Here's a peek inside one of our mini greenhouses. We should have lettuce, spinach, chard, radishes and green onions by market time!

My tomatoes have survived the windstorm.

We had visitor's today. My youngest brought his new girlfriend and her son to meet us. He just loved the tractor! We had a hard time getting him off of it.

What a face!

He really liked the sheep ... as long as they were on the other side of the fence. We've got a few that will allow you to pet them. Jess took Payton into the lot, but Payton wanted nothing to do with it.

God Bless You All!


~Grama Sue

Challenges

Wednesday was a beautiful day so I decided to take 11 of the monster tomato plants and put them in the garden. The plastic I had bought was much to thin and perforated at intervals, so I decided to shoot over to Kempkers and get some better stuff. On the way back the bridge had broken down, so after an hour, I decided to head south through Keokuk. What should have been a 30 min. trip wound up taking almost 3!

Yesterday and today have been pretty windy, so I've been working to keep these plastic covered cages from flying away! I'll be so glad when we get a high tunnel! They are designed to stay on the ground. These are designed to fly!

Egg Demonstration

Do you know the difference between an egg that is produced Hy-Vee in Qoutside and one that is produced inside? Stop by the Harrison uincy between 2 and 5:30 today and I'll show you!

Movin' On Out

These poor little guys look so lonely! 

Their friends all went out to play, but they are desert plants so they will have to wait another week or two :(

They aren't in the ground yet. Keeping them on the porch for a while to get them used to the outside.

I can take a picture of myself taking a picture! Aren't I talented?

This place is pretty protected from wind, but I'm still a little nervous. Hopefully we will have them all in the ground in a couple of weeks!

We are planning to start doing markets the first week of May. Should be in Nauvoo at the Mini-Mart on Mondays from 3-7 and at the Riverfront in Burlington on Thursdays from 5-7:30. I am so looking forward to it! I love markets. We will have lots of greens, probably some radishes and green onions to start out with. Hopefully, we'll have tomatoes soon too!

I will be in Quincy at the Harrison Street Hy-Vee on Tuesday to do another demonstration. That will probably be the last one for a while. We hope to go to the Tuesday farmer's market at the mall in Quincy all summer to promote our eggs.

See you soon!

God Bless You All!


~Grama Sue