Waiting on Winter...

James Gibbon - Typically, winters in Montana are long and harsh, but this year has been a completely different type of winter. It is now January 5th, 2021 and we still barely have any snow on the ground. This has been great news for our chickens, but it has sadly put a real damper on the ski and snow sports. The chickens have really enjoyed the lack of snow and have spent more than their normal amount of time outdoors and out of the coop. It has been fun to see them enjoy this warm winter and get outside more than usual. Our horses have been enjoying this weather as well as they have been able to easily find grass in our pastures. Typically we have at least a foot of snow on the ground, and this prevents them from being able to easily graze in the pastures. However, this lack of snow has really negatively impacted the outdoor recreation activities we usually participate in during the winter. These include: snowshoeing, skiing, sledding, and playing with the dogs in the snow. We barely had a white Christmas this year and it just did not feel the same as our usual Christmas’. My wish is that we start to receive more snow so we can enjoy the fun parts that winter has to offer. I miss seeing the sparkles in the snow scattered throughout our fields as the sun shines on the blankets of snow. Hopefully we start to get some snow soon and I can update the blog on how much snow we have gotten. Until then, we will have to wait and see what mother nature has in store for us.

Planting the Cucumbers

Cucumbers or pickles? I’ll take both! This is one of the reasons I was so excited to transplant our cucumbers into the garden the other day. Let me walk you through the process:

1. Prepare the soil for planting. I got some Organic Compost to place on top of the top soil to enrich the soil and provide a better ecosystem for the cucumbers. I layed out 1 full bag of compost and it allowed for about 2-3 inches of compost layer above the ground.

2. Take cucumbers out of tray with spoon and begin planting. I used a spoon and spooned them out of the tray they were seeded in. I then dug out some holes with the Korean Hand Plow in the compost and covered them up.

3. Water the cucumbers. Water the fresh transplants and ensure a safe and secure transplant.’

Below are some pictures of the entire process!

Update: James Gibbon's Raised Garden Beds

For those of you who are loyal followers of Montana Farm Life, you might remember the raised garden beds that I built over the winter in our barn. If you don’t remember or you are a new follower of Montana Farm Life, below is a picture of what I produced for our garden.

Raised Garden Bed

I built 3 of these to add to our existing one for our outdoor garden. Now that it is springtime in Bozeman, Montana we decided it was time to fill our garden beds with soil and prepare them for planting. If any of you have filled garden beds before, you know how expensive it can be to fill them up with the perfect blend of compost and soil. To help reduce the cost, but still adding to the value of the bed, we decided to break our blend into 3 parts. 1 part being straw hay, 1 part being organic compost, and one part raised garden bed soil. This provides the nutrients our plants will need, but reduces the cost of filling the bottom third with straw hay. Below are some pictures of our final product and please comment with your favorite blends for organic raised bed gardening.