Our Spring 2012 garden was a learning process. (I say that as if every season’s garden isn’t…*insert eye roll*)
We tried planting directly into the soil, but realized it would have to be heavily amended with extra garden soil due to the layer of limestone lurking under the surface. (Spoiler alert: Edward’s Plateau is made of limestone, if you didn’t know.) Our brassicas were annihilated by cabbage loopers that quadrupled in size over a single long-weekend trip. The bermuda grass we had once nurtured now became the bane of my existence as it creeped into the transplants. Even though it wasn’t perfect, the excitement I felt when our first baby tomato appeared, or beans sprouted was incomparable and the joy of sharing fresh veggies that I GREW MYSELF was addictive and made me want to improve and learn more for the next year.
We knew that we needed to spend the Fall and Winter seasons constructing raised beds for the following Spring, so construct we did. Happily, Matt is extremely handy and his mother was taking down a pergola that could be used for scrap wood. Soon the cedar pergola pieces were combined with galvanized metal to make gorgeous raised beds. Which we then had to fill with dirt…wheelbarrow load, by wheelbarrow load. Those raised beds were swiftly reduced to half their original height to reduce the labor involved. 😉
By the time Spring 2013 planting came around we had a lovely raised bed garden. I even requested a pressure canner and supplies for the holidays that year to encourage my suburban homesteading dreams (garnering raised eyebrows from my mom, but was received nonetheless).
At some point I began browsing for acreage on realtor.com and sending Matt emails with notes like: “For my birthday?!” and “Can we have, please???” I wanted MORE LAND. And chickens – despite our HOA regulations. Matt kept talking about beekeeping – that couldn’t happen in the neighborhood. Our yard was just under an acre, a huge lot size compared to most suburban neighborhoods. Not to mention we had done so much work on the once builder grade home that it was hard to imagine ever finding something that would suit us as well. These factors (along with the obvious financial implications of moving and buying a larger property) made us hesitant to make a move, so it became an ongoing joke for me to send him links to farms and ranches and to chicks and hens for sale.
In 2015, I turned 30, and after much debate with what we would do if the HOA caught us (I know, we are SUCH rebels!), we bought an adorable chicken coop and four retired layer hens to live in our backyard.
We also sat down that Fall, looked at our finances, and realized – if we really wanted to, we could probably buy some acreage. The whirlwind began about a week later.
To be continued…
(Be sure to check out Part 1 if you missed it and continue with Part 3!)