Hi everyone, if you’ve been following the evolution of our “working mini farm,” as we call it, since we moved in during the fall of 2021, then you may have noticed that it’s been a while since we’ve posted an update on it (the last one was in fall 2023).
Rest assured, we’ve (well, mostly my parents) been hard at work on building out the garden, landscaping the stream, and planting lots of tasty vegetables and herbs to create recipes with!
So much has happened since we first moved in. Let’s give you a quick tour, and some fun before/after photos!
The Downstream Area
There is a pond on the property, with a stream that feeds the pond from the upper area of the property, and a waterfall that flows out of the pond into what we now call the “downstream” area.
When we first moved in, this was an overgrown, shallow, rocky area that would sometimes overflow with water after heavy rain. While it resembled a stream, it was hidden by long grass, weeds, and other brush.
Since then, my dad has painstakingly lifted stones from all around the property to landscape the area and create a clearer channel for the water to flow.
Our concern was keeping the area neater while also looking naturalistic. After lots of rock moving (a lot of HEAVY rock moving), he created a staircase down to the area, a lower pond, a couple natural bridges, and some terracing that looks intentional while also blending into the landscape.
The Kitchen Garden
The kitchen garden has gone through a few iterations. It was a bit of a weedy mess when we moved in, but we cleaned it up and there were some pretty nice raised beds in there. However, the wood did start to fall apart after a few years, so we removed them, and made longer beds with stone borders (again, with rocks from around the property. As you’ll see throughout this post, we have no shortage of rocks.)
We use this space for more delicate leafy greens/brassicas that like to get eaten by slugs and other pests. We have fewer pest issues in this garden than in our “big garden,” which is next to the barn. If you’re interested in growing Chinese vegetables, check out our Garden/Farm archives for how-to grow articles!
The Big Garden/Potager
I’m really trying to make the term “potager” a thing, because it conjures images of idyllic French vegetable gardens, but we all just call it “the big garden.”
The big garden is in a very sunny location above the pond, and it has probably experienced the most dramatic transformation of all the areas on the property.
When we first moved in, it was basically a patch of dense weeds held together by a rotting fence, surrounded by more weeds.
It was cleared and paths were put down for garden beds. This layout worked for a couple years, but the fence was rotting and it was hard to get in and out of the garden gates, as the wood was falling apart.
In the garden’s third year, we built a new fence around it! Again, we used rocks from around the property to build a low stone wall for the base of the fence.
We made the garden larger, laying out the beds slightly differently, and also put in a potting shed, greenhouse, and large arch for climbing plants. The potting shed windows were all salvaged from the barn, when we made its windows larger. Below you can see the before and after of that:
The garden is just getting under way now, but it’s exciting to have it all in place for this growing season!
The weeding up here is real, but over the last several years we have greatly reduced the number of perennial weeds by keeping on top of them starting early in the season and preventing them from going to seed.
The shed and greenhouse don’t have much going on at the moment, but that will change!
The Chickens & Ducks
The chickens and ducks are still in their nice little area, but rather than the temporary fence that used to be around their run (which we would have to step over, which was a major tripping hazard. Bad news when there’s chicken and duck poop on the ground), we finally decided to put up something more permanent.
I think we’re all enjoying the fact that we don’t have to do light gymnastics just to get in there to change their water and feed.
The Mound
The “mound” is a euphemistic term we have for what is actually a large septic mound that the previous owners (two or three owners ago) decided to landscape with a low stone wall. It created this sort of weird grassy tennis court-like structure on the side of the property that always has people scratching their heads. (“What IS that?”)
We found out from the architect who worked on the original renovation that the former owners had planned to put a flower garden on the mound with a greenhouse next to it—a plan that got scrapped when they realized that they couldn’t put a structure that close to the septic field (sorry I keep saying septic).
We’ve made it into a sort of experimental cutting garden, with shallow-rooted annuals and perennials (shallow roots, so they don’t go down too deep or disturb the ah, septic stuff).
It’s a bit of a mishmash and not the prettiest area by any means, but it has supplied us with enough material to make lots of nice bouquets for the house through the growing season!
The Barn
So we’ve shared a bit about the exterior renovation here, but we are finally working more on the inside! More to come on that in a future post!
Hope you enjoyed this quick update and tour!
