The plot thickens! (pun intended)

Keeping true to my descriptor as a perspiring homesteader, I am now endeavoring to install my garden under the full heat of the Arkansas summer sun.

Now, one might think, wait... isn’t garden planting for spring time?

Why yes, if you were an inspiring homesteader that would make sense, but with enough perspiration anything is possible!

Fortunately for me and mine, in Arkansas, even June is not too late to put a garden in.

Over the last two weeks, all of my children have pitched in, making being greener, all about being BLUER.

That is, we all got busy Building Legacies Utilizing Earth’s Resources: we happily got dirty preparing a thick garden bed to free our tightly rooted potted plants.

My children learned about gardening first hand: how to install a fence, what proper soil is for healthy plants, how to beautify with natural materials, the joy of working together as a family, and the promise of a fruitful return on our investment.

That is the brilliance of being BLUER than green. You can take a simple eco-friendly endeavor and make it meaningful:

• Make it about teaching your children something to pass on to their children.

• Make it about how to utilize resources to produce something greater than itself.

That’s what being BLUER is all about.

The making of the garden plot

Here in the Ozarks we have plenty of opportunity to make use of the abundant green resources of the earth, but unfortunately there’s also an abundance of rocks, weeds and pests. Thankfully, I heard about the no-till method of lasagna gardening before even considering digging into the extremely rocky soil on our raw land. In lasagna style gardening, you place newspaper or cardboard on the ground and build up your soil as high as 2 or 3 feet, layering manure, compost, leaves, peat moss and other goodies. We tried this method in Wisconsin, and it truly is remarkable. Hardly any weeding and the plants LOVE it.

To prepare our new garden plot, we selected a site that would be considered zone 1, just 25 feet outside the cabin foundation.

Then came the fun part of scooping up loads and loads of thick black dirt and raking it out flat. Well, it was perhaps a little more pleasurable than usual, with a few helpful power tools--a dump trailer and skid steer. You’ll notice from the pictures though I had no power tools for the fence posts, just hard pounding perspiration, and lots of blisters. Ouch!

Word to the wise, use gloves when pounding posts.

We topped off the dirt with some wood ash from our fire pit and would have added a few extra lasagna layer “seasonings” if time allowed. The plot was finished off with a couple loads of thick mulch to block out weeds. The kids did a fine job actually using some of those Arkansas rocks to create a natural blockade for soil runoff and a little beautification.

And VIOLA , a thick garden plot of loose fertile soil. This will be our first of many Arkansas garden plots.

Follow along with us on our journey. Many lessons, discoveries and improvements are sure to come.

Thanks for reading!

As Always,