Spring has sprung on The Ridge

And just like that – winter is over and spring is here! While we still have a few nights forecasted in the low 30ºs, we are enjoying 70º days and all that comes with the change of seasons.

We have been busy prepping our gardens, hatching chicks and clearing the wood paths through The Ridge. After a rough growing season last year, we’ve made a lot of improvements to our garden so that this year can be more fruitful.

This year we added fourteen metal raised beds to our front garden and three metal raised beds to our back garden, while continuing to build up the raised log beds we grew our berries and melons in last year.

We also invested in good soil – the key to any successful garden. I’ve also managed to start our seeds on time instead of waiting until after the warm months already started and having to rely on seed starts from the store.

We’re already seeing great results with the lettuce, garlic, radishes and broccoli I started a couple of weeks ago, and the indoor greenhouse is full of tomatoes, peppers and cut flower seedlings as we near warmer weather.

One proactive step we’re taking for the summer garden is setting up our rain barrels. Last year, especially with the drought, we struggled to keep the garden watered in the heat. Having no water in the front meadow is a bit of a struggle, but in addition to the rain barrels we’ve also invested in a few extra hoses so we can run water straight to the garden from the chicken yard. Much better than running bucket after bucket in 100º+ heat.

Outside of the garden, we’ve already had a few hatches of quail, our first batch of bantam chicks and all three incubators full to the brim for an early April hatch. We also added ducklings to the farm, and are hoping to expand our poultry operation in preparation for next year.

Lots of fun things going on here at The Ridge! We are really looking forward to seeing what Spring brings and how the garden comes along this year.

Be sure to subscribe and follow along on our journey towards becoming more self sufficient.