Paradise in Disguise Hobby Farm Blog

The vegetable and flower garden - based off the Back to Eden gardening method, which uses wood mulch (some visible in the 1st photo), plus some "companion planting" and intensive gardening. Basically, the majority of the 5ft wide garden beds and 3 ft wide walkways are mulched, and plants are closely spaced to shade the soil & conserve moisture. We also don't pull all the "weeds", as some are beneficial, some are edible and some help provide shade for the cool-season plants that are still growing.  Baby butternut squash, carrots & beets, with red clover. "bush" beans that are turned out to be pole beans, Husdon Valley Seed Library "Breed Your Own Squash" project, cosmos, clover, carrots, turnips, beets, etc (L)Amaranth, basil, Swiss chard, carrots, clover;  (R) "chicken forage bed" - planted with amaranth, oats, wheat, sunflowers, vetch, etc - I'll harvest later, so they can get some green "forage&

Here's some of the perennial flowers, which are growing in the "vegetable" garden to attract pollinators and beneficial insects. Comfrey - just planted this the beginning of June! Black-eyed susans to the right just starting to flower. Potatoes almost ready to harvest Swiss chard, squash & garlic all in the same bed & thriving! This volunteer pumpkin came from seed which endured the winter underneath the chicken tractor that's now the "Garden Coop". It has HUGE blossoms & huge leaves - never had a such healthy squash plant Bee balm Yes, bee balm & squash growing together Onions that have gone to seed among the squash, which are growing in the same bed the daffodils were blooming in this spring!

This was one of the last beds to be sown with lettuce, kale, beets or Swiss Chard. And no, I prob. won't thin them, as they're doing just fine "intensively" planted. This one isn't of the garden, but every morning when I go into the chicken yard, there are lots of spider webs covered in dew, hanging from the aviary netting. They're very cool to look at, but sometimes I don't see them & walk face-first into them. Not a pleasant feeling, but at least I don't mind spiders, just not crawling on me! Garden overview shots: Cabbage, dill & arugula  Mother Stallard Pole Beans Female squash blossom Mammoth Dill plant Another "spontanious" sunflower growing among the squash & some red Russian kale The 1st sunflower to open, though it's the shortest one.  Parsley flowering (over-wintered in the ground with lots of wood mulch, after being dug

Well, here it is August 1st already! I can't believe how fast this summer is flying by. And it probably doesn't help that I've been so busy that writing on this blog often has gone by the wayside. At least I don't have a huge following, at least there's so "official" subscribers according to Blogger.com. So, at least I'm not leaving a "crowd" of people high and dry, waiting for when I'll finally post another blog entry! Anyways, I thought I'd just give a brief journal entry for what's been going on, starting with today, August 1st. My alarm went off as usual at 5am, and after about 5 minutes, I rolled out of bed. Seeing that yesterday Mom & I had worked nearly day until about 8pm on what I'm calling "re-organizing the building supplies into a usable fashion" = using the pallets, old window and scrap lumber that I have on hand to make more chicken coops. We're doing a section under the pine trees, where onl