We have had quite a productive summer in the gardens this year, despite the cloudy, fungus-loving weather conditions. Many cucumbers and different varieties of tomatoes, with Red Brandy Wine being our favourite. The boys grew their own tomatoes quite successfully this year (Golden Sunrise), learning to pinch off the suckers, trellis their plants, harvest regularly, weed, and spot for fungus. We've been eating watermelons weekly for a month now, and they are still coming. The boys have a huge pumpkin to carve for halloween, sadly they will have to share as a rat got to the other one before we harvested it. We have lots of crown prince pumpkins to make into soup, and butternut squash to see us through to Christmas. Many potatoes are being stored in our fire place (we think we might grow a little less next year). We've also had the luxury of homegrown salad, pesto, and other veggies - dwarf French green beans have become a sure favourite.
The Guinea Fowl coop became a thing, finally, just in time to move the first round of keets in. As these birds are so fragile when young, but incredibly hardy once they are fully feathered, we figured a coop would enable us to make sure we can achieve Magnus's dream of having 50+ Guineas roaming the valley (sorry neighbours, might get a little noisy around here in the future). At the moment, we have a mix of chicks and keets in this area, but that won't be forever. Guineas are are much less destructive than chickens, and will also do a much better job at getting rid of the cutworms and excessive numbers of earwigs, slugs, and crickets. The chicks will be moved to Zone 3 early next year, away from the market gardens and into the designated food forest.
The farm never sleeps, and we are always making improvements somewhere along the line, or keeping the jungle in check. This summer, the chicken area got spruced up a little so we could actually find the eggs. For the first time in months, we seem to be overloaded with eggs! The Autumn planting is almost finished, just a few late beets, carrots, and spring onions to put in. We will also do successional sowings of daikon radishes over the winter period - they seem to grow fine in any weather. For early next year, we are concentrating on having a lot of broccoli available for the boys, so quite a few sprouting broccoli plants are in. We will see how they fair with strong winds.
We did a lot of swimming, the boys gained a new rope swing for their play area, and the Johnson trio also learned a new skill - Archery, with the first lesson being how to construct a makeshift Archery target.
Oh, we also finally got part of the road completed and figured out how we complete the rest - not as easy as it sounds. Before long, we'll be able to get a little car down to our home without so much as a scratch. A large area has also been opened up, with space for a second greenhouse which we plan to make into a little nursery for many varieties of fruit trees and tropical plants. I wonder if cinnamon will grow here? We'll need a greenhouse to at least be able to try.
Now we are embracing the season of cutting down big monstrous trees and opening up areas for spring planting. We are hoping with a month of volunteer help, we can get the chicken area in order - ready for cultivation next Spring. Seems the food forest is just beginning!
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