When you start out, keeping plans simple and manageable is very hard. For the kitchen garden, I wanted fancy salad fixing’s. Since I am an Arugula eating, left wing liberal (sorry, no limo), I went nuts, bananas, crazy over the Dastardly Seed Catalogues! There were 10 pages of JUST lettuce! MMMMMmmmm.

Ooooh the seed catalogues (I’ve already received 7 this year)! What a rich and warm feeling those thick, glossy 4 color slick catalogues evoke in my heart and soul. It took a failed season to hammer home the lesson that some 70% of the seeds offered don’t have a chance of making it to my dinner table without significant (read costly) soil remediation and watering.

But I tried, really tried that first year. Bags and bags of Black Kow (or generic) manure lovingly dumped, mixed with my sand, and fertilized with the ever useful Miracle Grow. A cheap multi function easy to move sprinkler, and about 250 feet of new hose. In my ignorant enthusiasm I also had bulb and wildflower garden islands in the front of the house. And had to drag that hose virtually miles over the growing season to keep things alive.

At the end of my first season, I figured it cost me about $200 to nurture along, sweat over, even a wee bit of blood over for about $30 (retail) worth of veggies. Who knew? What grew “up north” vigorously throughout the summer dried and died mid June. Leaving only small struggling bits of pale green, wilted, stunted food, bereft of nutrition. Sigh… The catalogue SAID Zone 8. The packets said to plant in early spring, which it turns out is February in Alachua County.

The radishes were the only sure thing. And jeezalou what can two eaters do with a hundred radishes? I know NOW. Eat the green tops people. Wilted with bacon is the best.

But I managed to figure out a few things that first year. Start off small. Grow what you really like to eat. Sow shallow in sand. Plant in 2 week intervals. AND GET A REALLY GOOD HAT! Skin cancer is really unattractive, you should see my neck. The southeast side of it. Ish.

Enjoy the catalogs, use a Sharpie Marker to pick your favorites, clip out the picture and description and look up every plant somewhere on the internet. Purchase cheap (yes CHEAP) garden tools. If you survive the first year, get better tools. If you make to it year 3, spend less on seed and buy the very best tools you can afford. Make sure, very sure, you have time for it.

Nothing is more meditative than sitting on your bum in the garden and plucking out weeds. Nothing is more satisfying than thinning the lettuce bed for a bit of something you can eat for dinner. Nothing brings me as much pride as serving friends some great bread from the 2^nd Street Bakery with oil and fresh herbs from my garden.

We have lots to talk about….. 

 Get used to more homeless families. Start thinking about what we can do to help.

I'd be willing to "take in" a single mother family of up to two children. In exchange for helping me to improve my gardens into a working small farm, (while searching for new employment if desired). Room and board for some weeding, chicken feeding, egg collection, etc. Access to public schools, libraries, city services within 20 min drive or 30 min bike ride.

With more helping hands we could add milk goats. And we could grow/raise enough to sell.

We have a small 2.5 acre place, but over half of it is wooded. And a full third is in the front. Where we planted a small orchard this year.

My near neighbors and I are making plans to secure our water access by adding a solar powered pump to the one well on our 3 properties.

THE WOMEN: We share our eggs and veggies, and whole meals are provided from the neighbor who loves to cook and bake. We are going to share the costs of 50 lbs of flour, sugar, and corn meal. We are adding to a list of items that we might not need immediately, but the cost of will shortly go over the moon. Coffee, Tea, Rice, Oats, Vitamins, First Aid Supplies, wine, alcohol you get the idea… And while one of us is still working in town, she is experienced in raising small livestock. When she loses her job, we have decided to combine the backs of all three properties and add the goats, some rabbits, pigs, and maybe even a cow. Personally, I’m looking forward to a steady supply of goat milk, cream and butter…

Out of our small group of 6 souls, only 2 are employed full time. Both are saving, saving, saving, as much cash as possible. Some day, we may have to pool resources to buy things we cannot barter for or to expand our perimeter fencing.

The MEN: One computer geek who can fix ANYTHING, one crotchety old farmer, and one severely disabled man who can drive a fierce lawn tractor! They are making tool and equipment cross lists. They figure we should have just about everything we need to build, repair, grow, harvest, and yes, protect.

Power tools are gradually being replaced by QUALITY hand tools. And we have some family heirloom tools that are over 100 years old! Kept sharpened, handles replaced, oiled and cared for.

And Yet…

We just won’t be able to afford much of it.

But take a good look the next time you do your “BIG” shopping. Take note at the empty holes on

the shelves, or better yet, move a box or two and see how empty the shelf is BEHIND the front row.

BUT, I wouldn’t live in a city with any building over 4 stories high. And I have a shotgun, and a few well armed friends.

Just thought I’d post something, maybe get a real conversation going????

NEWBIES:

1 Rhode Island Red (Brandy)

1 Buff Orrington (Blondie)

1 Americans (Ugly Betty)

1 Sex Linked ISA Brown (Brownie)

OLDIES:

1 Barred (Plymouth) Rock (Barack of Course)

1 White Cornish X (Biden)

1 Comet Bantam (Buffy)

1 Seabright Bantam (Bitchy) Dinner

 So, much to Hubby’s disgust, I added 4 more chickens. One that lays blue eggs (when she gets around to it), one fluffy blond Buff Orpington, a Rhode Island Red who is shiner that I thought, feathers could be, and one cross breed Rhode Island White and Road Island Red which makes her a pretty multicolor tan and ecru and lays ginormous eggs.

These new girls are outside chickens. My most tender of hearts fear that they will get colds and die (before I have a chance to dress them). They LIVE (so far) huddled together on a carefully placed old tree branch, fluffed out, heads tucked and virtually immobile (I’ve checked with a flashlight well after midnight). The last few days of driving rain wasn’t even enough to force them to the shelter I set up.

In a lame Greenhorn attempt to at least keep some of the rain off, I set up last summers beach umbrella. Which TOTALLY freaked them out. I put out some special kitchen scraps and warmed corn grits in bowls under the umbrella, and at least while they were eating they were out of the rain. It looks rather like the carousel out in St. Augustine. Bright umbrella, colorful birds circling around. I really ought to get a picture before we build the bigger coop.

If you look up the word bedraggled in the dictionary, there will be an image of my 4 rain soaked scrawny birds, standing on one foot, so close together they look attached.

Bringing new chickens into a flock (even a small one) is most interesting and entertaining. The “old” birds totally dominate the “new” ones, then ignore them with a sort of chicken distain

The Bantam chases the newbies around the perimeter of the run, and there are more than a few loose feathers scattered around. Although I’m happy to report that there has been no blood letting.

The Barred Rock mostly just runs at them to make them scatter. The White Cornish guards the feed pan. When I put down a second pan, he strutted back and forth between the dishes trying to keep the new birds from eating. So I scattered some weed greens everywhere, moved the perches, shifted the little coop around, and generally confused the hell out of ‘em.

But it worked.

Today, I’m off to the feed and seed store for more chicken scratch grains. You feed the scratch at the end of the day and the high calorie corn and seeds helps to keep them warm through the night. It’s time to get another bag of crushed oyster shell, and I think I’ll look at the pre-made nest boxes. You’re supposed to have 1 box per 3 to 4 hens. And, well, um, it makes me a little ashamed to pick up eggs that have just been laid on the ground. Not that it bothers the Chickens in the least. Oh, yeah, a sack of rye grass seed too. Grows crazy in the cold, and brings a bit of green to the yard. The rain soaked ground is PERFECT to lay it down.

Next time we have to decide how best to make the FRONT acre productive. Fruit Orchard? Clover cover crop? Practical or Possible?

Anna and Doresett Golden Apples, Sunred Nectarine, FloridaKing Peach, Wonderful Pomegranate, Sweet Pomegranate(no really those are their names), Fuyu Persimmon, and a Brown Turkey Fig.

The apple trees are going in the side yard outside my studio window. The pomegranates, nectarine, and peach trees are being planted orchard style along the front drive. The fig and Persimmon (which don’t need cross pollination) are going into the open space between the Pine Island and the Hurricane Hole.

There ARE some citrus we “can” grow it here in Alachua County, but it seems they come with more worry than worth. Hard enough to get to sleep at night as it is without fretting the occasional freeze.

An orchard is an investment in the future. In our children and beyond. The trees arrive as little more than sticks with a root network. Not grand enough to be called a root ball. You can purchase root ball or larger stock, but at a greatly increased price.

Taking the advice of the Master Gardener, and the crabby old farmer at the feed and seed, I purchased my trees from a vendor within 100 miles of my home. The trees available at the big box stores were 5 times the price, and many of them were species that are difficult to tend in our area.

I did try to find a nursery in Alachua Country (Gilchrist, Columbia, and Bradford too) with no success. If there is one, please let me know. I’d like to add a few more varieties. I passed on pears and plums and am looking to add them in this season, or the next planting opportunity.

The bare root trees were priced from $7 to $10, With the total order coming in at $85.00. I’ve got plenty of time to wait for them to be in “fruit”. I still need to learn more about preserving, dehydrating, giving, and selling, to keep me occupied whilst they grow.

It will be nice to have something slow to grow, with a harvest delayed. The rest of the gardens will keep me hopping enough for this year while I learn more about growing more.

There is a fantasy in my head of baskets of fruit loaded in my wee truck and driving the produce around town and dropping a bushel here, there, wherever. With thanks or without.

Lady Bountiful, a medieval idea, but I can’t seem to help myself. I’ll wear some flowing hippy dress, and my big garden hat, the old rusty, peace buttons on it, maybe held down with a colorful scarf .

One question still bothers: Just how many fruit trees to you have to plant to be able to call it an orchard? Just Askin’