Here at my farm, my gardeners and outdoor grounds crew are working hard in the vegetable garden - planting some of the season's first crops, removing old roots and other debris, and reinforcing the raised garden beds.
I built my half-acre vegetable garden in the spring of 2023. I designed it to have about 50 raised garden beds of varying sizes and created a very precise map showing exactly how big each bed would be. It's now two years old, and I'm so pleased with how well it has done. I've grown so many wonderful and delicious vegetables for my family. To keep it looking and performing its best, it's important to maintain the space and the beds. Recently, I noticed the white oak wooden frames starting to show some wear, but instead of replacing entire boxes, I reinforced them, making them much stronger and more appealing.
Here are photos, enjoy.
I can’t wait until my vegetable garden is once again filled with delicious produce. It’s always such a joy to walk the few steps from my Winter House and pick fresh, organic vegetables.
I work with my head gardener, Ryan McCallister, to plan what crop will be planted in what box. We rotate the crops every year and plant in succession, so there is always something wonderful to harvest.
All the garden beds are made with strong white oak, but over the seasons with so much soil amending, watering, and regular weathering, some of the raised bed frames began to wear. This side of a bed is warping.
And on this bed, some of the wooden boards are weakened and becoming misaligned. Replacing all of the beds would have been time consuming and costly, but it was important to repair the beds for the new growing season, so a plan was devised to reinforce the existing frames.
I ordered some wood from Mauricio Guevara, owner of New England Lumber Inc., in Mount Kisco, New York and Westport, Connecticut.
This is also naturally straight-grained white oak.
Pete measures each bed precisely. Remember the old adage, “measure twice, cut once.”
Fernando helps to deliver the wood to the saw right on site. I always encourage my crew to bring all the right tools for the right job.
Here’s Pete cutting the boards carefully and accurately.
Each board is placed by the bed to ensure the sizes are perfect. Eight pieces are needed for each bed.
Pete and Fernando clamp the new wooden board pieces to the existing frame.
Here, they also clamp one side to the other to help align them properly if needed.
Pete uses a hammer to level the top new piece with the existing piece.
A spare piece of wood helps Pete check and straighten the bottom.
Then Pete makes a pilot hole for the screw. Pilot holes help prevent splitting and allow for easier and less forceful screwing.
Fernando follows with three-inch screws in the same pilot holes.
From above, the frame is bolstered on all sides.
Next, Pete screws boards along the top to add strength and durability to perpendicular boards.
And here is what it looks like once the supporting pieces are all secured.
This is my long asparagus bed. The newly reinforced sides are now much stronger and perfectly straight. The special caps are used to block sunlight from the growing spears to make white asparagus.
These beds are looking so much better already and the job will be done in time for transplanting. I hope this inspires you to repair and reinforce your raised garden beds if needed. Enjoy the gardening weekend!
I've been raising chickens for so long, I can't even remember not having these wonderful creatures.
Right now, I have 29 precious chicks in residence - Araucanas, Ayam Cemanis, and Marans. The peeps came from eggs laid here at my farm and then incubated and hatched inside my chick room at the stable. All of them are healthy, alert, and very curious. They will remain in a large cage until they are big enough to move to their own enclosure and coop, and then into the chicken yard with the other adults.
Enjoy these photos.
Perfect eggs – all laid by my healthy hens here at the farm.
The eggs are placed into the incubator where they are safe from other birds and closely monitored until they hatch. Chicken eggs take 21-days. While the eggs incubate, they are automatically turned once a day, 45-degrees each way, back and forth during this period.
At about day-seven and again at day-14, Helen “candles” each one, meaning she holds each egg against a light, turning it slowly, to observe the embryo inside. Fertilized, growing embryos can be identified by visible blood vessels, a large dark spot or filled space in the egg. This egg looks to have a developing chick inside.
This egg looks pretty clear all the way through, so it’s likely there is no growing embryo in this one.
From days 17 to 21, they’re placed into this hatching cabinet, where it is still warm. The eggs are spaced apart in sections where it is safe and where eggs cannot roll during the hatching process.
After the chicks hatch, they are placed into this cage in the same room. The room is kept very warm and the chicks are checked often. Baby chicks need constant monitoring until they are at least a month old. Chicks require an air temperature of 95 degrees during the first week, 90 degrees the second week, and so on – going down by around five degrees per week until they’re ready to transition to the coop.
And here is just one of the chicks – nothing short of adorable.
These youngsters are less than a week old, but they are already very mobile and exploring their surroundings.
These chicks all have clear eyes and are very alert.
My stable manager, Helen, who is also very experienced in raising chickens, makes sure the cage bedding is changed daily.
Chickens have their own personalities – some are more active or more curious than others.
The chicks are fed organic chick starter for the first six to eight weeks. Helen mixes in a little water to make it more palatable for the young birds.
Starter feed is a protein dense variety of chicken feed designed to meet a chick’s dietary requirements. Several feeding dishes are placed into the cage.
A chick should never have to “wait in line”. On average, about 10-chicks can consume approximately one-pound of chick starter feed per day.
Fresh, clean water is also always provided. In fact, every chick is personally shown where their food and water sources are, so they know where to find them.
It’s hard not to notice the large feet, but it won’t take long before these birds grow into them.
In general, chickens are quite vocal. They make around 30 different calls to communicate with each other, expressing everything from “I am hungry” to “there’s a predator nearby.”
These peeps are also very social and where one goes, the others follow.
I’ve raised many different chicken breeds and varieties over the years – they are all so fun to observe.
Chickens are generally gentle, shy birds, but because these are being raised around a lot of activity, they will be well-socialized and friendly.
I am so happy with this group of chicks – they are all strong good eaters, and will be great additions to my flock.
With weather on our side here at my farm, my outdoor grounds crew is crossing off lots of tasks from the list, including pruning the long row of Osage orange trees along the fence of one of my horse pastures.
Have you ever heard of the Osage orange? The Osage orange, Macular pomifera, is actually not an orange at all and is more commonly known as a hedge apple, bow wood, or bodark. The fruit is wrinkly and bumpy in appearance, and considered inedible because of the texture and taste, but they're very interesting and fun to grow. Pruning and grooming these trees is challenging because of the many thorns, which serve as a natural defense mechanism against animals and humans, but regular maintenance also encourages fruitfulness and good growth.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
Despite its name, the Osage orange is actually a member of the fig family, Moraceae, and a cousin to the mulberry tree, which is also in the same family.
The Osage orange is dioecious meaning that there are both female and male trees; only female trees produce fruit. The fruit grows on thick branches, oftentimes in groups.
It includes a dense cluster of hundreds of small fruits. Some say it resembles the many lobes of a brain.
And, cut in half, the fruit exposes a pithy core surrounded by up to 200 small seeds that are much sought-after by squirrels. It is also filled with a sticky latex sap that some say repels insects.
The leaves are three to five inches long and about three-inches wide. They are thick, firm, dark green and pale green in spring and summer and then yellow in fall. There is also a line down the center of each leaf, with lines forming upside-down V-shapes extending from the center line to the edge of the leaf.
Here is a closer look at the yellow autumn leaves – so bright. Osage oranges should be grown in full sun on well-drained soil.
Here is another autumn photo of the Osage trees. They are located along three sides of my North Maple Paddock surrounding the run-in field and shed, not far from my tennis court, I have Osage orange trees. Properly maintained, these trees make a lovely natural hedge and fence. When established, they can withstand almost anything – heat, cold, wind, drought, poor soil, ice storms, and rot.
The wood of the Osage orange tree is extremely hard and durable. On older trunks the bark is orange-brown and furrowed. The heavy, close-grained yellow-orange wood is very dense and is prized for tool handles, treenails, and fence posts.
Here they are before pruning. These Osage Orange trees grow very fast – the shoots from a single year can grow up to three to six feet long. I planted many of the Osage trees at the farm several years ago and they’re thriving.
And here’s their natural defense – Osage orange branches are armed with stout, straight spines growing from the leaf axils.
In winter or early spring when the trees are bare, they are pruned to keep them in bounds. Without pruning, Osage orange trees grow in dense unruly thickets as multi-stemmed shrubs.
Pasang cuts dead, damaged, diseased, or deranged branches first. Then he prunes out competing leaders, retaining only one strong upright with evenly-spaced branches. Here he is using a pole pruner – it has the cutting power of hand pruners but a reach of eight feet and more.
Pasang is a skilled pruner and oversees the pruning of all our smaller trees on the farm.
For higher branches, Pasang cuts from the cage of our Hi-Lo.
He uses a STIHL telescoping pole pruner. It has a quiet, zero-exhaust emission, and is very lightweight. Plus, with an adjustable shaft, the telescoping pole pruner can cut branches up to 16 feet above the ground.
When pruning, always encourage branches to grow toward the outside of the tree and eliminate those that grow toward the center or cross other branches. Air and light need to penetrate the foliage to the center of the tree as much as possible.
Cesar pulls off the spiny branches that have not fallen from the tree.
And Phurba carries them to a clearing for proper pick up and disposal. Because of the thorny branches, it is important to wear protective glasses, long sleeves, and thick gloves when working with these trees.
Chhiring uses the bucket of a tractor to crush the pruned branches, so they are more manageable.
The branches are taken to the compost pile to await their turn in the tub grinder.
Regular and thorough pruning gives the branches more circulation and room to grow. This is what they look like all pruned. We prune these Osage orange trees every couple of years.
And do you know… before the invention of barbed wire in the 1800s, thousands of miles of hedge were constructed by planting young Osage Orange trees closely together. The goal was to grow them “horse high, bull strong, and hog tight.” Farmers wanted them to be tall enough that a horse would not jump it, stout enough that a bull would not push it, and woven so tightly that a hog could not find its way through. The crew will be pruning these trees for a couple more days. It’s great to know all my trees are well maintained through the years.
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