216 - Advice for New Gardeners

After six years, it's time to shift our focus from what we're experiencing to what we can share. You'll see a bold new responsive design. Expect fewer podcasts, but there will be more information you can find and use. And we'll keep changing

Farmers have to keep one eye on next season. Even though it’s cold outside, we’re planning spring and summer vegetables. So when should we terminate our cover crops? They always hit a growth spurt when we most need to make room for other plantings

We love longleaf pines. They will live hundreds of years and are our forest's best tool for survival in an uncertain climate. Each January we plant a box of 330 longleaf seedlings. This year we're planting around the driveway, lodge, and Veg Hill

We love heating with wood, but it has its disadvantages. The temperature in your home will vary more widely, it's messy, you must be present to start heating, and you have to think WAY ahead to have enough seasoned wood

We’ve known about this for a week and had time to prepare. We were safe and comfortable. The issues were utility systems, plants, and animals. And most of that was managing water, keeping it off the animals but thawed and flowing when needed

Today we look back on 2014 and some "firsts" it brought with it, like the chickens and a cover crop test. We also talk about what we think lies ahead in 2015, like maybe meat rabbits, a greenhouse, and perhaps citrus.

Merry Christmas! We are back from a week in California visiting with Joe and his family. The visit was delightful, but we both are struggling with illness and weak voices, so we have kept today's program short

We use vinegar in our food the same way others do, but we also use it for weed control, for cleaning and stair removal, and for pickling. Most recently, we used it to disinfect the chicken coop and the brooder bin.

Yesterday we ushered two aged laying hens from coop to table. We learned: Start early in the day, make sure your knife is sharp, expect them to complain loudly, don't spend money on a cone or a plucker, learn chicken anatomy, and secure the dog

We're thankful for food put by, for food growing through the winter, for hens ready to grace our stewpot, for laying hens coming on this Spring, for firewood in winter and shade in summer, but especially for relationships with friends and family