It’s hard to believe it’s time to take our annual spring farm photos – but here we are already smack-dab in the middle of May. And do we ever have a lot going on at the farm!
Spring is always a busy time here, especially with planting the garden, flowerbeds, baskets and containers. But this year, for some crazy reason, we have decided to add in a whole slew of DIY projects to the mix.
It has certainly been the “Spring of Projects” at the farm. And perhaps the funniest part of all is that we weren’t even supposed to be here!
But when our trip around the country had to be put on hold, we decided to make the best of it and do what we love most – work on the farm! And quite honestly, we have been having a blast with all kinds of projects.
Here is a look around Old World Garden Farms, and a peek at some of the things we have been working on:
2020 Spring Farm Photos
The New Chicken Coop Project
One of the most exciting projects we have been working on is our new chicken coop. And it’s almost complete!
We decided to locate this coop adjacent to the garden. Moving it beside the garden will let us create a direct run into the garden for the chickens. That will be helpful in the fall when garden season ends, and we turn them loose to forage for bugs.
We will do a full story on the new coop build in a few weeks – but we really tried to build a lot of low-maintenance features into this one.
One of our favorites will be the outside egg box access door, which will make collecting eggs a breeze!
Apple Trees In Bloom – Spring Farm Photos
Nothing quite says spring like our apple trees coming into bloom. Our mini orchard of 7 trees are now 8 years old. And judging by the amount of blooms, we are hoping for a big apple harvest!
It is really neat to see some of the work from so many years ago starting to pay off now. And fruit trees are certainly a plant and wait effort!
The Garden
It took us only a few days of being home to take off the cover to the garden. We didn’t plant a cover crop since we thought we would be gone all summer, so we opted to tarp it instead.
It is now bustling with life with all of the spring crops in and growing. And just this past week, the peppers, tomatoes and other summer crops went in too!
The Garden Fence – Spring Farm Photos
The new coop and garden fence is probably one of the most exciting projects we have worked on this spring. It will connect the garden and the coop for fall access for the chickens.
Using the “little at a time” approach, we have been putting in a few posts each day. With a total of 32 6 x 6 posts to sink, and a whole lot of fencing boards – it is quite the undertaking.
But the good news is when complete, it should last for 20 years or more!
Installing A Dry Creek – Spring Farm Photos
For years, we have struggled with heavy rains creating a small river through the bottom of the farm. So this year, we decided to build a dry creek to handle the issue.
So far, it has worked like a charm to handle the heavy rains without incident. But more importantly, it gave us the chance to build something we have always wanted at the farm – a bridge!
The Cabin Bridge
For years, Mary has always wanted a bridge somewhere on the farm. And once the dry creek went it, it gave us the perfect opportunity to build one to the cabin.
The bridge frame and treads are all made from 2″ thick rough-sawn pine sourced from a local sawmill. The rest was finished off by using leftover materials we had on hand from other projects.
We create the railing with extra rebar we had from building our porch rails. And the rope, well it was created from remnants from trimming out the shiplap in the cabin.
The Rhododendron
Our Rhododendron on the side of the house has become one of our favorite perennial plants at the farm. And each year, it seems to become a little more full of blooms.
And what a welcome sign this spring to see so much color come to life!
That about wraps up our spring farm photos for 2020! We always enjoy creating our Farm Updates, it really gives us a chance to see the progress that each year brings. One thing for sure, it has changed a lot since our Growing Simple book was first published back in 2016.
Hopefully, by the time we are ready to bring you the summer version many of the projects will be complete. Happy Gardening – Jim and Mary
Jim and Mary Competti have been writing gardening, DIY and recipe articles and books for over 15 years from their 46 acre Ohio farm. The two are frequent speakers on all things gardening and love to travel in their spare time.
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