Our Yard: Late March vs. Mid April 2020

The garden is really taken off now! The last frost is past, warmer weather is here, and rain is on the way. Here's how the yard has changed over the past couple weeks (and look for a full homestead update tomorrow!).

First, the backyard:

Our Yard: Early March vs. Late March 2020

(To see last year's garden, check out this post!)

I thought it would be fun to post pictures of our garden in progress— thanks to mild weather and lots of rain, March has been an amazing growing season for us so far! It's wonderful to see how much the yard has grown in just a few short weeks. I'll be posting a full homestead update tomorrow, but in the meantime, enjoy!

P.S. If you're interested in learning more about any of these plants, or gardening/permaculture in general, please don't hesitate to leave a comment. I'm not an expert but I'm slowly gaining experience, so I want to be as helpful as I can!

March 1st: Our cherry, elderberry, and false indigo trees, with raspberries in the foreground and the mulberry to the far right

March 27th: Look at all that lovely clover! You can also see comfrey coming up.

March 1st: Mulberry, hazel, and pear trees. Our old chicken coop still had Jerusalem artichoke stalks in it

March 27th. We cleared and harvested the Jerusalem artichoke, and build a new two-chamber compost pile (to the left of the old coop)! You can also sort of see our new pond on the right (pics of that coming tomorrow).

March 1st: Pear trees, false indigo, apple

March 1st again

March 27th: Bulbs along the fenceline are up (not sure what they are, they never bloom), and some comfrey and mint are coming up!

Our Yard: April vs. July vs. July

Why yes, that is a 12-foot-tall forest of sunchokes behind me...

A couple weeks ago, I was able to spend a few packed days in St. Louis after my tour with Insomniac Folklore. It was wonderful to catch up a little (though not enough!) with family and friends, and as a bonus I also got to visit our yard to see how it looked after a summer of basically no inputs. 

As you can see, the result was a bit stunning. 

For contrast, I've included photos of the yard from when we first planted it in April of 2018, then photos from July 2018, and then photos from July of this year. Enjoy!

 

April 2018: Bare sticks of cherry, hazel, and currant, with some cover crops.

July 2018: Corn and squash, with the addition of elder and false indigo.

July 2019: Hibiscus, cherry, false indigo, huge elders, tons of vetch.

April 2018: The *sniff, sniff* chicken coop.

July 2018: False indigo, elder, mulberry, hazel, volunteer squash.

July 2019: Elder, mulberry, ridiculous forest of sunchokes (Jerusalem artichokes), including several in the foreground; a never-ending carpet of turnips, kale, and vetch.

April 2018: Pear trees, apple trees, nectarine.

July 2018: Volunteer squash, sunchokes, tomatoes, with all the above trees.

July 2019: Same as before, but with an ungodly amount of turnips and kale, massive comfrey plants, and volunteer groves of black-eyed susans.

April 2018: More of the same, from a different angle.

July 2018: You can see the edge of the "pond" we made here, as well as the wildflower garden.

July 2019: See how big the nectarine tree is! Also a volunteer maple tree and a mess of comfrey.

 If a food-shortage apocalypse comes, y'all better head to my house.

~~~