Have started planting my winter greens spinach, kale, beet tops and some new ones too.. I am also going to start doing cuttings from my sweet potatoes, black berry bushes, Raspberry bushes, and try some fruit tree cuttings too. Maybe a few flowers this year also. I did some strawberries  through last winter and they did well and will try them again this winter. I am adding light and heat to them this year too… Haven’t ever done any extended light or added heat before.. I think it will be a great year for this. Will try to keep pictures and growth posted with time.   This is my first raised bed that I have covered for winter greens, I still have 3 more to do later this fall. It is a lot of work to clean up and remove old plastic and strips along with all the weeds and other obstacles  before being ready to do the recover and planting. Will add new rabbit poo and maybe other organic matter for mulch to the soil before planting. The bed that I have planted and replanted is not covered yet and will add a couple of pictures as soon as possible. The kale is doing good and the spinach and beet’s are far behind but should show up in pics. If interested please follow and comment as needed to help or encourage too. Thanks Calvin Allen

This is one of my typical control burn off fires. As you can see it is rather small for good fire control.

As soon as possible in the spring I start working on my garden preparations. Usually, I start by raking up and pulling the residue from last year’s plant and weed remains. After I clear out all I can—I burn the rest to avoid weeds and vines clogging up the tiller tines. I almost always do two burns to get the wetter residue, which won’t dry until it gets air exposure. After burning, the real work begins! Once the burn process is over I start the cultivating process.

The areas I’m planting root crops in I usually turn over with a good cultivating fork. This is not an easy job, but it will greatly help the root crop production. A good plow will also work well, but in a confined area like mine, I can’t use a plow. Once the dirt is turned over, I run my small cultivator through it to mix up the soil blend, then rake it down and begin planting.

These forks are good to turn over ground to about 8 inches, if the dirt is workable. I have added a lot of organic mulch for several years and the ground works well.

In the larger plots, I use a rear-tine tiller that I bought over 10 years ago and it is still working fine. Any kind of tiller you want to use will work. The rear-tine is best to work in the dirt and rocks, but it is much heavier to maneuver especial at the ends of the rows.

We have had strawberries and broccoli transplanted since late fall but have added lots of cuttings for spring transplanting. We have also planted spinach for spring  greens in this space.  Have added another section as well and planted lettuce, spinach, beets, and peas to add to our green’s for salads. We also cook a lot of the greens. We are going to continue to add and experiment with lots of other greens and some other plants for raised beds and cold frames.  I am going to add light and heat to the tall cold frame. We are going to market the frames in several different sizes and styles. The one I have pictured below is about $900.00 set up and ready to plant or I will also plant. This is set up on a level accessible area, and does not include mileage charges. If this is something that interest you please contact me, I may be able to help you design something that will work for you and provide some of the materials and design for DIY projects.  Thank You for viewing my site and  hope you enjoyed what you read and viewed.

The last 2 weeks have made a big change in the garden area. The garden is mostly tilled and has been providing some harvest.  The spinach is doing very well and Sunday I was able to give some to a lady in our church that really loves it. I will post some pics of the progress soon. The Asparagus is also doing well, We had our first bunch Saturday the 9th of April and had a very large bunch today. We brush it with olive oil and then sprinkle garlic salt on it and wrap it in aluminum foil and grill it for about 15 minutes.  I have planted 2 rows of corn and hope it will not be lost to frost.

We usually don’t  have late frost here because we are at a good elevation for this area. The elevation is also a plus for the wind turbine. I am going to set one in top of a tree that I have topped and see how it works. It will be about 30 feet up. I also have a tower to put one on but want to try the tree first. I am planning on the tree living so I won’t have to remove or replace the structure any time soon.  I will also upload some pics of the install. The fruit trees are just about done blooming and the cherry trees bloomed very heavy too.  We have seen a lot of honey bees in the trees this year and that is a good sign, since we haven’t seen too many for several years.. Maybe I can find the honey tree and rob some of the honey this fall. I spent some time in the woods Friday and again Sunday and found about 30 black morels.  We had them for lunch today and for me this is a real treat.. Hope to find more soon and will continue to look and post if I find any more.