Planning the Garden

I'm so excited!! I just ordered four different rose bushes for our farm! I got The Fairy, which is a light pink Victorian-looking shrub rose first cultivated in 1932; The Colorific, which is a Floribunda rose with shades of peach, coral, and salmon; The Rio Samba, which is a hybrid tea rose that is golden yellow in the middle fading into scarlet on the ends; and the Falling in Love, another hybrid tea rose that is pink, fragrant, and good for cutting and giving to friends. I cannot wait to try my hand at cultivating rose bushes! My grandfather, Elton Pearson, was a master rose gardener. His were big and full and fragrant. He would cut me the best ones when I went to visit, and say, "A rose for my Julie Rose." :) How I wish he were still around to show me the magic. I'm hoping I inherited his green thumb.

It's exciting when it's cold and dreary outside, to be thinking and planning and dreaming about all the things we can plant on these 30 acres of blessing. I will mainly tend to the vegetables, herbs, and roses. Allie and Maggie are planting their own flower gardens. We will have a separate row of about 100 sunflowers, and a pumpkin patch a little further out by the pond. The vegetable garden is going to include corn, sugar peas, green arrow peas, beans, carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, okra, radishes, beets, onions, bell peppers, turnips, eggplant, rutabaga, squash, several types of lettuce, spinach, cabbage, greens, cucumbers, broccoli, and honeydew melons. Possibly strawberries but I'm thinking it will be more cost effective to just visit the pick your own blueberry farms than deal with pests eating the few blueberry bushes we might plant. There are wild blackberries already growing. The herbs I'm planning to grow are rosemary, basil, oregano, thyme, dill, mint, and sage. One day Allie and I would like to plant a small orchard of apple trees. Maybe next year. We need to see how we do on this "trial garden" first. :) It would be nice to sell our produce, flowers, eggs, and goat milk at farmer's markets but I think that may be a 2014 thing. 2013 is the year we figure out what works on our land and what doesn't.

Brian bought me a grain mill!! Allie helped me try it out today. She hand milled 10 cups of grain into flour. And if you think that's easy, well, you've never tried it. Luckily Brian has ordered us a part that will make it as easy as the push of a button next time. I think she will appreciate it. :)

The dough is rising right now. My kitchen smells so amazing. . .

Also in her spare time, Allie has been working on a cross stitching project for Acteens. . .

What have I been doing? Resting. If I don't rest, my legs hurt and I contract constantly. I'm trying to make it to April 5. That has been scheduled as induction day for baby Bethany. I wouldn't normally choose an induction, but this way they can manage my blood thinners and have my body ready for labor. So I must continue to rest until then. From my vantage point, I can watch my beautiful children, read to them, school them from my bed, and enjoy dreaming about Bethany.