Well, I have spent the last month going over different types of seeds. Last month’s vegetable conference gave me a lot of new ideas. Some that will be obtainable, others…not so much this year. Even though my plans are so much bigger than we can actually handle, I do believe that I have to keep if scaled down this year. The new items and projects are building up: CSA offering, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, garage, hay barn, fencing, hay making, and the list goes on. What is important is that we focus on the important items such as fencing, hay barn, garage, hay making, and of course the 2 acres of pepper plants. Yes, I am laughing because I know my husband will still be a bit frustrated and the amount of projects, but I know we can handle them.

As far as the seeds this year I am changing varieties. I will try a more resistant pepper plant along with the one my distributor grows. Maybe we will have some luck with these this time. I will also add the petite pan squash, herbs, radishes, and a couple other items he had asked for last year. We will plant about three thousand strawberries, everbearing, this spring to see how they go. Then this fall we will prepare the beds for about a half acre of plants to be ready for next spring. I also want to plan the area for the blackberries and raspberries so we can start building the trellises later this year. The conference showed a trellis system that allows the berries to grow up two sides with the present years producing on one side and the dormant canes on the other side. The photos were incredible and show how easy this makes for picking.

We are also adding bees to our fields this year. I just ordered four hive set-ups and will pick them up next weekend. The package bees will come in early April. This will help with the pollination and correct the dropped flowers we had last year. As you can see, even in the winter we are quite busy.