Since we first started our homesteading adventure, we have given each year a theme. While work overlaps from year to year, we find that starting with a broad theme helps to focus projects. Otherwise, we try and start too many things and nothing get completed. Our Year of the Chicken went well. We still have 9 of the 12 chickens we started with, and are getting nearly 5 dozen eggs a week even with the lower amount of winter daylight. The harshest part of winter is still ahead, so we will see if we can get them to spring.
For 2024, we have settled on... "The Year of the Perennial".
While we have planted plenty of perennials over the past few years, such as asparagus, rhubarb, and fruit trees, we wanted to dedicate a whole year to perennials for a few reasons. First, we have a handful of small carryover projects to try and get done in 2024, such as finally fencing the garden and wrapping up the basement work shop. The chickens also need a fenced run to prevent them from damaging plantings outside the fenced garden. Second, our son Henry will hopefully graduate from UW-Platteville this spring. We suspect we will need to make time to not only see him graduate, but to help him move to wherever he finds a job. Perennials should fit into these projects and commitments.
We have also made a few false starts with perennials, and hope having them as a focus will lead to success. I have tried establishing raspberries for two seasons, and have little to show for it. Maggie 'harvested' one Carolina raspberry last year from a planting I made in 2021. Last year, the 2023 cuttings got a good start, but the lack of rain and varmint pressure did them in. I also tried starting a strawberry patch last year, and they were dug up one by one by what we suspect were groundhogs. We already placed orders for more raspberries and strawberries, and will work harder to get them established. The fence should help with the groundhogs, and it cannot be any drier in 2024 than it was in 2023. At least that is what I keep telling myself.
Lastly, there are a few plants I have wanted to try growing, and they happen to be perennials. One is lavender. I have been researching lavender, and it is apparently difficult to start from seed. I have, of course, bought seeds. They require a technique known as stratification, and also grow slowly. I spent New Year's Eve looking at the calendar and computed a start date of February 4 to get plants in their new bed by mid-June. Lavender requires warmth and well-draining soil. I started to kill grass along the south side of your garage in 2022, as this seems like a spot with both sun and drainage.
We have also wanted to start prairie plants for along our fence lines. This fall, I hiked in some naturalized areas and harvested seeds from Prairie Dock, Compass Plant, Grey Coneflower, Cup Plant, Rattlesnake Master, and Sneezeweed. These plants also benefit from stratification, so our refrigerator will be stacked with ziplock bags of paper towels and seeds come February.
Last spring, we planted some Corkscrew Willow and Pussy Willow. We kept several of these cuttings alive through the fall. If the deer do not find the small plants, we should see them again in the spring.
Maggie has suggested we plant less vegetables in the spring, since we still have lots preserved in jars. The seed catalogues have started to show up, however. She has already circled several plants in the Bakers Creek catalogue, and I have already bought seeds for English cucumbers and Tolsi Sweet Peppers. Soon we will get out the garden map and try and figure out where, or whether, we will cut back.
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