How much is enough?

I read today about a young person seeking a small piece of cheap land to build a "farm" on - a 26 year old and they were asking others what the best way to go about this was.  One reply was "How small do you want to talk about?  I have 1/2 acre in a subdivision - a miraculous event for me - it will never be a full fledged farm but it is a foothold where I can make real changes in how I impact the world"!

I love that line - "A foothold where I can make real changes in how I impact the world!"  If each and every one of us looked for that "foothold where we can make real changes" and developed it in the DIY style that all Farmers/Alaskans/Permies are known for, the world would certainly be a different place.

It got me thinking - as a lot of things do now days - how much is enough?

In terms of farming and gardening I think - to each his own - it depends on what you are growing.  Peonies take a little more space than lettuce, and apples a little more than peonies.  If you are growing in vertical spaces, and mostly veg (not fruit trees) 1/2 acre might be enough to grow "enough" in.  It also depends on the size of your family and how much growing they have to do still.  I think my son is still has some growing to do even at his size!  If I could grow peanuts here Id be in great shape - but again - could I grow "enough"?

This is the "orchard" area for lack of a better description - fruit trees, raised garden beds, berries and a few flowers thrown in for good measure!  Remember last year when we were a "one apple farm"?  Well this year we should be at least a "two apple farm"!  

Above is the "Williams Pride" apple tree covered in blooms!  Ill have to cull some of them off if they all pollinate.  I also have a "Duchess" apple that has three or four blooms on it.  The "Westland" which is the one that produced the apple last year did not bloom this year but is still alive and looks good!  Even the one that Brix the dog ate looks good! And my Cheery Cherries have bloomed as well - more about that later!

Wicked Raven Farm is 4.5 acres, but some of that is lawn (put here before we came) and some is what we have left go to "meadow" so that the moose and other animals might stay in that area - at least until I have a better fencing option.

Here is the "meadow" area - it ends up being about an acre.  

This side towards the lake is mostly lawn with some herb bed and fruit trees in it.  This side does well for growing things but we dont have a way to fence off the lake to keep the moose out and still be able to use it effectively - so we grow most of our stuff in the upper yard!

These two show the lawn and how patchy it is away from the lakeside.  We have tried to amend the soil, used char, and now we are leaving the grass clippings from other parts of the yard on the bare patches hoping that it will fill in.  We are using only organic practices because we live on the lake and anything we put on the yard will end up in the lake.

As I have said before, our soil is mostly clay with sand in it so we have to compost or bring in most of the soil and either dig out or seriously amend the soil here.  It doesn't really even lend itself to lawn growth right now on the side away from the lake.

We have carrots, radishes, kale, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and peas in the raised beds with some horseradish thrown in for good measure.  I had old lettuce seed and none of it came up - it may have been just still too cold a spring even in the raised beds, when I planted it. 

So, is this "enough"?  Probably not with the way this spring has been so cold and rainy.  I also have not seen nearly "enough" bees this year!  I have done pollinating of the apples with a paintbrush to make sure that I get at least a few. 

I have herbs in containers all around the house, greenhouse and anywhere a container needs to go!  Also on the wall of the little brown shed, in little terra cotta pots that I can bring in each fall so we have herbs all winter!  Its a great way to add some freshness to your cooking even in the winter and doesnt take up a lot of space.  It can be "enough"!

You may recognize this photo from an earlier blog - an upcycle one telling how I made those pot holders!  (See that here)


The greenhouse has been doing wonderfully though!  We will have lots of tomatoes (thanks to my Auntie - more on her later) and a few cukes.  But as far as Im concerned there are never "enough" tomatoes!

What would define "enough" for you.  How much space will that take?  Can you do with what you have?  Where can you put a container even to gain your "foothold where you can make real changes that impact the world"?  Even if your start is slow and your world seems small, impact on your world makes impact on the bigger world like water rings in the lake when a small pebble is thrown in - those impact the other side of the lake.  It can be enough.  I wish you all enough.

We cut the Banana!

Well - I have made a few references and a post about the Banana tree (see that here).  Once a banana produces fruit the tree dies and must be cut.  Before it produces fruit, it grows a baby banana next to it!  Its a great circle of life and a beautiful houseplant, but I HATE the cutting of the tree - even though it is dying - it just seems wrong somehow!

Here are the little bananas on the top of the tree - there are about 8 of them on there.  Turns out we seem to have a Musa Basjoo Banana - which is really a decorative banana or a fiber banana - not an edible banana!  Dammit!

This is what they looked like at first - then they turned black all over and fell off the tree - that was a few weeks ago.

Here are both the old tree and the new "baby" tree - not such a baby anymore!  The only way to tell the two apart is the old tree (left) has a very brown trunk and the new tree trunk (right) is very green!

Here is a closer photo and you can see the color differences more easily!  This photo also shows that lemon tree behind the banana tree and it currently has a lemon on it!  We will be a One Lemon Farm thisyear but that is better than none!

We cut it off - it was very easy - used a hacksaw with a fine tooth blade.  The trunk cut through almost like cutting a banana - really soft and moist.

The old banana tree on the porch ready to go to the compost pile - it looks very small in this photo - but it didn't seem like it before we cut it.  It will make a good addition to the compost I think - add that fiber into the garden!

Here is the new banana tree in a new (bigger) pot and it has shot up to the ceiling!  If you look at the top leaf of the photo, you can see that I had to roll up a piece of paper and put it into the new leaf that was trying to push through the ceiling!  The idea is that when the leaf unfurls the paper will just drop out harmlessly and keep the plant and the ceiling safe!  We were worried that this would happen if we repotted it but the old soil was done for and we had to change it out.

 I hope that you have room for a banana tree and can get one for your own!  This one came from Farmers Seed catalog about 6 years ago.  Maybe see if you can get one that actually produces edible bananas, but it sure is a fun plant and a great learning experience for all of us!