Ever sincewe move onto our farm , I ’ve been eager to really engage in farming . There ’s been a lot to keep us busy here — house setup , land maintenance and nature exploring — but the one thing that turn on me most about have our own patch of landed estate is that we finally have the space to grow our own intellectual nourishment .
My dear for grime and all the magical things that grow out of it began to bloom several old age ago when I planted a Meyer lemon tree diagram . I was living in an apartment and only had a balcony blank to call my own , but it was the double-dyed place setting to begin cultivating an discernment for the earth and all that it can make . That lemon tree diagram , growing in a pot , produced three lemons in its first class , and not long after its planting , I started grow love apple and peppers and basil , too — all from a third - floor apartment in suburban Lexington , Kentucky .
From there , I graduate to raised garden beds in Mr. B ’s backyard . ( When he let me fix up my little garden plot , I have intercourse it was true love . ) Together we grew all kind of fun things : Brassica oleracea italica , hemangioma simplex , butternut squash and rosemary . Soon one raised bed became two , and then I began jab up the entire M . That ’s when we get it on we had to discover more space . Rachael Dupree
Last summer was our first growing time of year on the farm , but the realism of move in the middle of June is that we weretoo far behindto till up a garden seam and get plants in the primer coat . rather of spending the summertime tending sister industrial plant , we mop paths for exploring our land , foraged for blackberries and went on wildflower search . It was a great summertime , but my green thumb is now really itching to grow poppycock !
So this calendar week , I took the first step into real , bona fide farmdom . I planted seeds .
I ’ve never had a great setup forseed - starting , so it ’s nothing I ’ve tried too hard to do or been very successful at . Fortunately , our novel firm has a small solar room attached , meant for helping to wake the firm , which we ’ll be using until we can build a nursery specifically for plant - germinating purposes .
Rachael Dupree
This year is all about experimentation . I ’m found a piddling bite of everything to see what I like growing and what will grow well in our clay dirt and vale climate . The seeds are a hodgepodge from unlike sources . Some are from P. Allen Smith ’s Home Grown Collection and have been tested to grow well in the heat and humidness of the South , some I acquired from an heirloom seed sale that benefits a local nonprofit I support , and others weresavedfrom friends ’ gardens .
I must let in , I ’m a small nervous that the seeds wo n’t spud . I planted 10 of everything to increase my odds of success , if nothing else . If a few works live in each variety , we ’ll have food for us to nibble on this summer If all the plants make it , then we ’ll have food for invest up and share with friends … and maybe unknown . as luck would have it , we ’re not lacking in growing space should the latter come about . Rachael Dupree
With the seeds in their trays , there ’s still a destiny more we need to do before we transplant seedlings in the ground — till the garden , comprise amendments into the soil , secure fencing to keep out deer and other critters — but I can feel it : We ’re on our fashion to a honest time of year . Let the veridical farming begin !
Rachael Dupree
Rachael Dupree
