What’s happening on the homestead here in mid spring, going into the 4th year of growing plants, expanding our gardens and really dialing in what and how we would like for things to work. I thought I would do a sort of brain dump as to what is going on, not only for future years but also in case anyone else is curious about what small family homestead scale gardens and food forest style orchards look like and some of the moving parts.
A meals worth of pickings from the April garden
Fruit trees:
The peaches and the plums just flowered! Most for the first time, but one for the largest profusion of flowers yet and I am so hopeful we will at least get to try a peach this year!
Goumi berries are in full flower now, and it looks to be a larger crop than last year.
Mulberries are juuust about to ripen. It’s our big trees largest crop ever, and I really wish the wind would chill out so it would stop losing fruit.
One of our Pakistani mulberries is doing pretty terrible right now, but the other one has fully leafed out. Probably no fruit this year but I am hoping that the other one is late to come back- it got zapped harder by a late frost than the other.
Thornless blackberries are flowering and beginning to set fruit. Maybe better than last year?!
Figs look to be at the beginning stages of setting fruit- maybe this is a breba crop?
Fuyu persimmon starting to flower for the first time ever! Native persimmons just beginning to leaf out.
Elderberries still leafing out.
Pawpaw leafing out, which means still no flowers and still no fruit this year. That’s ok- it’s early days (year 2-3)
Kumquats are developing new leaves. I just want them to fully recover from winter and be strong. I anticipate fruit in the fall, but that’s not much of a concern.
Loquats are getting new leaves, too. They did not flower this year and will not fruit, but I want them to hopefully recover from the winter (they are still recovering from the polar vortex that took many of them out completely)
The vegetables:
We are harvesting lettuce, beets, green onions and a few snow peas. Pea shoots can be had, as well as herbs like lemon thyme, parsley and some flowering cilantro. Fava beans are just starting to produce bean pods.
We’ve got cucumber, tromboncino squash, melons, summer squash, tomatoes, tomatillos, red noodle beans, yellow wax bush beans, potatoes and garlic in the ground.
There’s about half the ginger and turmeric in the ground and are waiting on the other half to fully sprout before planting. Some is still in the ground from last fall- we’ll see if it resprouts (it should)
The weeds:
Poke shoots and greenbrier tips
The chickweed and cleavers have gone to flower and about to peter out, but we are still harvesting it periodically. Purple dead nettle is definitely at the end of its life span.
Self-heal is growing well. Lyre leaf sage is in full bloom and attracting all the cool sphynx and hummingbird moths.
Poke is at prime harvesting time, and greenbrier tips are abundant, too,
The mushrooms:
Very first picking of ava beans, a small clutch of golden oysters and a couple of winecaps 4/12/22
Golden oyster log is fruiting! Winecaps (Stropharia rugosoannulata) are fruiting in the margins and the shiitake logs are weakly fruiting.
Our super low tech methods for growing mushrooms outdoors have been fair to middling. There’s a lot to say about it, and perhaps I willl do a post on it here soon. I haven’t, because truly, who wants to read about a fully mediocre success at something? But then, maybe people can learn from our mistakes? And also, there is so much more to it that simply that we are crap at growing mushrooms. There are a complex constellation of factors, many of our control. I digress….
There have been some wild oysters too that we have come across. Those are always welcome, as are the wood ears periodically fruiting too. It should be peak morel time now, but we haven’t found any yet and it is not for lack of looking. Ash trees seem to be late to leaf out and so we aren’t counting them out just yet.
The perennials:
Yarrow, comfrey, heartleaf skullcap, nettles, houttuynia, moringa trees, lemon balm, daylilies, wild chervil, bee balm, passionflower.
We still have the rest of the seedlings still growing out, overwintered cherry tomatoes and peppers, corn, sweet potatoes, okra, winter squash, sorghum and pole beans to plant. I also want more flowers in the ground- I’m not sure how many zinnias will come back- I see some tiny sprouts but I want to plant more. Sunflowers. Red amaranth. More marigolds. Holy Basil. Roselle hibiscus.
There’s so much more that I just wouldn’t even know where to categorize it- the new gynostemma vines I am super excited about, the Tithonia we successfully overwintered, the veggies and herbs still growing out and not ready to be planted out yet.
There’s still a lot of stuff to be planting out over the next while, both new and upcoming seedlings as well as overwintered plants.
Work currently being done and continuing into foreseeable future:
Weeding. So much weeding. Some can be mowed or scythed but some of it needs digging up and potting up- elderberry suckers, hoja santa suckers, Jerusalem artichoke sprouts.
Fertilizing beds and adding fertility. This year, we are mulching with giant salvinia- I don’t know what to call that. Is it foraging haha. Giant salvinia and burying so many fish parts that were dumped by local fisherman.
I hope that gives you some ideas to diversify your garden ecosystem this spring season!
Buckeye showing out, showing off and bidding you good day.
