Here’s what we’ve been up to since the snow melted…
TIMING IS EVERYTHING
We’ve had a stretch of unseasonably warm days. The kind that make you look at the pool and think, maybe we should open it early this year.
We won’t. Twenty years has taught us that for every one or two days you can jump in, you get weeks of tree debris, pollen, and constant cleaning. It’s not worth it.
Farming, we’re learning, has the same kind of timing lessons to learn.
We definitely started most of our seeds too early. Turns out, not everything wants to begin at the same time. A lot of seedlings were already hitting the grow lights and outgrowing their trays, so we were forced to move. The annual garden is in… even though we could still get a frost. We usually wait until Mother’s Day but this year, we couldn’t. Lesson learned.
Last fall we weeded everything thoroughly and tarped each bed so, after folding in layers of leaf compost, Lori got all the seedlings planted. We still need cattle panels for a proper snap pea arch trellis, but the annual garden is officially underway.
Further back, Zone 1 of the permaculture orchard is fully reviewed and finally in great shape after a rough winter. Every tree has been trimmed… every row weeded. If we lost 5 out of the 99 plants we put in, I’d be surprised.It took me a while to get there because I wanted to handle infrastructure first. The heavy lifting. Get the bones right so I could focus on the details.
Infrastructure work on my list included building wood chip roads throughout the property, which involved a lot of hand raking. I found a great resource, ChipDrop.com, for FREE wood chips and have used it multiple times. I also started clearing the hill along Route 23 of vines and weeds. It’s purely aesthetic, but it will look great when done.
Everything takes time. And we really only have Saturdays and Sundays.
Weeknights are for small tasks. Weekends are 10-hour days in overalls. We’re turning down invitations, and we both had the thought that Easter dinner was cutting into farm time.
HELPING HANDS
Another big piece was building out compost bays. I pushed the hedgerows back and carved out space, then with help from friends Nicole and Sam, we built cinderblock dividers for four bays. One for stone, three for compost in different stages, with the richest soil at one end. We also have a rotating composter near the house that feeds into the system.
Nicole and Sam also helped move stone into the greenhouse floor. Huge help.
The agrihood crew has been stepping up too. Matt’s tractor has been invaluable. His family just got chicks, which Rin, Bobby, Lola, and Sebbie are all-in on, and I helped Matt pick up a coop.
We’re close to getting chickens again ourselves. Before we do, I want to build a small chicken tractor (kind of a mobile coop) so we can move them around the property.
ZONE 2 START
Matt and I also made a run to VFC, where a grove of invasive bamboo has taken over out back. We cut a truckload and brought it back to Sans Souci to make stakes and trellises. I’ve been building framed supports for the grape and raspberry guilds… about halfway done there.
Zone 2 is now underway.
We’ve got two cherry, two plum, two pear, a persimmon, a filbert, and four grapes and four more figs ready to go in. All permaculture style. That should be wrapped this week.
We’ve also started work on a pond.
So at the moment, a lot of things are started. Not everything is finished.
That’s the theme right now.
REGENERATE EVERYTHING
One open question is hay. I may just keep the zones cut with the zero turn for now. Speaking of which, after 20 years of starting without fail, it wouldn’t even turn over this spring. I replaced the solenoid myself and got it running again.
Felt good.
There’s something consistent in that mindset… stop buying, start fixing. That’s what we’re doing with the land too. Not building from scratch, but repairing, regenerating, turning something worn down into something useful again.
Eventually we’ll alley crop with vegetable annual plants between the rows. I have peppers coming from some Philly permaculture friends and we will supplement with trips to Colonial Gardens.
For now, Zone 1 is done. Zone 2 has begun. The greenhouse and material bays are active. The seedlings are in the ground.
And every weekend, the list keeps growing…
HIVE MIND
Several beekeeping friends have inquired about putting hives at Sans Souci. It seems that diversity in the pollen types is beneficial and we are certainly going to be producing a lot of varieties on the farm. I pushed back another bay near the greenhouse just for the apiary and they should be arriving in ten days or so.
We’ll probably do a blog just on the bee welcome and then, as I learn more about them, consider our own hives one day.
AG CONNECT GRANT
Sans Souci was awarded a grant from the Chester County Economic Development Council’s AG CONNECT program. Through that, we’re working with the OPAKE Institute at Alvernia University on a full business plan.
I’ve been meeting weekly with grad students, exploring how Sans Souci might become a viable business.
Usually it’s me brainstorming for businesses and it’s a strange shift, being on the other side of that conversation.
We’ll share more once that comes together but some of the ideas include small events, a learning center, restaurant provisioner, and a CSA.
For now, we’re just doing the work and staying curious.
Stay curious.
PALM READER 