Expanded Garden Update:

The clover in the two new garden plots is growing
beautifully, and the “girls” are eyeballing it from afar! The girls are the
mares next door; there are about 15 of them. 
They linger at the fence at any given time dreaming of munching our
clover.  That fence is up thanks to Steve
who had the great idea of using his backhoe to push the fence posts in the
ground. I just placed the post on the spot, held the level on the post to be
sure it stayed straight and he pushed a lever to push it in the ground. No
pounding and digging involved. It was the fastest fence post installation ever.
Did I ever say how happy I am that my husband came with all this equipment?

We are now
busy building our dream compost bin. 
We’re using bales of straw to consume all of our garden rubbish and
kitchen scraps. This bin can easily be made any size, looks nice, does not need
to be turned, and the straw walls become part of the compost as it breaks down.
Quite a smarty pants idea, but I don’t get credit for it.  I saw the bin in Eliot Coleman’s book, Four-Season
Harvest.

Another of
Coleman’s books, The New Organic Grower, is
the book that taught me the principals of maintaining a sustainable way of
gardening, which is by the way, the original way to garden. I find myself referencing
his books often; in fact as I write this, they are right at my fingertips next
to my home laptop. The tagline of The New
Organic Grower reads “A Master’s Manual of Tools and Techniques for the
Home and Market Gardener” and I must say it is completely true. These books are
available from our online garden center.  click here to view our books.