AHHHH The Veggie garden! For me there are is no other garden that compares to a Vegetable Garden! The possibilities are endless in that little patch of earth. There is no right or wrong just creation! I mix flowers, herbs, veggies, and ornamental in my patches just for the fun of it! I always do the raised bed method with paths in between and I love this style because it's no till and easy to maintain. To me the layout sort of instills a feeling of being in a secret world. Here at the Goodstone we are blessed with beauty and abundance in all forms!
We have surrounded our garden with 6' no climb horse fencing to keep out deer and other unwanteds! Plus this gives us a whole new area to grow on vertically! I love to do gourds, sweet peas, yellow pear tomatoes, berries, espaliered fruit trees or anything else that will climb the fence or use the extra support! I am lucky because outside our garden sheep graze to keep the grass down and the piggies eat our scraps! Very symbiotic really! The Pigs eat our healthy garden waste and we will in turn eat them !! Plus Oliver~ our large pig ~ is the best rototiller I've ever met. I rescued him from The Middleburg Humane Foundation early this spring just for that reason, he will not be food. Although I don't till I do expand! The next expansion that we do on the garden, it will be Oliver's job to do the digging!
Pattie and Link on the other hand are being raised for food. I am OK with this because I know we are giving them an amazing life while they are with us and they will in turn bless us with amazing food!
Above: Oliver~ our resident rototiller!
Below: Pattie~ She is soo sweet!
Below: Link~ He is a funny guy! He fights pattie for every scrap of food! Therefore earning himself a trip to the butcher first as he is nice and fat already!!!
With all the rain this year and cool temperatures we have had a great crop of greens! Lettuce, chard, spinach, mustard, kale, collards, arugula, turnips, beets and the list goes on! Our winter was mild too, so I had a lot of things over winter. Our first batch of spinach was ready mid March and I actually had a crop of cilantro that over wintered which is really rare!
Above: Over wintered Cilantro mid May
Below: Over wintered Spinach and Kale
Below: Chard with Red Onions on the left and Garlic Chives on the right
Below: I had an Artichoke come back from the root for the first time too!
Below: A bed of Garlic put in last fall mixed with Alpine Strawberries and volunteer Sunflowers
Below: Flowering patch of Chamomile!
Below: A patch of french white strawberries! YUMMMMMMMMM
The sheep that graze here belong to Fields of Athenry. Elaine has been wonderful to work with and we love her meat! We are happy to have her sheep graze on our land and proud to serve her meat in our restaurant! Thanks Elaine!!
Above: A Lettuce bed ringed with chives!
Below: Bronze Fennel and Red Oak Leaf Lettuce
Below: Mustard Osaka Purple~ These guys are so good and spicy! Not to mention pretty!
Below: Newly planted Horse Radish
Below: Beets! We have a great crop of Beets this year and all different kinds!
Below: Early spring garden
Below: Asparagus
Below: mid spring harvest on the way to the kitchen!
Below: Plum Purple Radish
Below: Chive Flowers
Below: A bed of direct sewn Gourmet Lettuce blend, YummmmI had great success with direct sewing lettuce this year!
Above: Tom Thumb Lettuce, One of my favorites!
Below: New Rhubarb planted this spring!!!
Below: Vollenteer Squash looking lovley. Our seeds are not doing as well as the volenteers. Between squash bugs, cucumber beetles and tons of rain we are struggeling to get ours to do aswell as these. Again ~ more support for my theory about volenteers, they always do so much better!
Below: Lettuce cimmaron
Below: A perfect romain head!
Above: Lettuce Lolla Rossa
Below: Lettuce Tennis Ball~ Named by Thomas Jefferson for it's perfect tennis ball apperance and size!!
Below: Left quarter of garden mid season
Above: Our Peas are doing wonderful and can be found on our menu right now !
Below: Apparently the peas are doing so well that a little bird thought them a safe enough spot to build her nest!
Below: Paco~ a god send ! Paco worked in the veg garden all season last year and I am blessed to have him again this year! He keeps things under control! He is really good at straight lines and I am the oppisite! So we make a really good team !!! Thanks Paco for all you do !
Above: We expanded our garden this year doubling the size. You can see that this section is new, as it is empty looking and no volenteers showed up. It was all field until late this winter! This section will house our tomatos, squash, melons, corn, gourds, cucumbers, pumpkins and............who knows what else!
Above: Chard up close
Below: Borage alba~ a white borage. I planted some blue this year. They have beautiful, ediable flowers that last a long time !
Above: A bed of parsnips! Doing well. In the next month I will sew another bed in hopes to over winter another crop and have them ready for spring! I LOVE them. And they are really satisfying to grow! My mom always makes them for Thanksgiving instead of mashed potatos. She creams them and adds fresh Horserdish root! SOoo GOOD!!! They've replaced mashed potatos in my book for good!!
Above: A patch of Tom Thumb Lettuce I'm letting go to seed in hopes of a fall crop!
Below:Potatos, Black berries, Raspberries, Parsnips, Peas, Onions, Chard, Beets, Mint, Sweet Annie and cilantro. All that in 1/4 of or garden! It blows me away every day!
Below: Bolted Tom Thumbs up close. I think they are sooo pretty! I stuck a few in their entirity in some vases for last night's wine dinner. They were spectacular! And a welcome change in my flower arranging routine!!
Below: Expansion~ while it looks new now I'll bet you won't be able to tell in another 2 months!
Above: Emily helps harvest Peas!
