What a joke it is that I thought I’d have time to keep up posting during our inaugural year on the farm. It has been insanely busy and very over-whelming. Long about September, I decided I may actually survive. From about March through August we were pillar to post every single day, hanging on for dear life. All in all, I must call it a success even when most of it is a blur. We had more produce than we could process (much of it is still in the freezer awaiting me); we put herbs, vegetables, flowers, and fruit in the ground with absolutely no idea if it would live; the weeds and bugs were next level; I used muscles I didn’t know existed; we process two batches of meat chickens (deserves an entire write-up all on it’s own…geez!); and…I am so very excited to start again in mere weeks! It’s bizarre.
Over the course of the past year, I kept a garden notebook. There I kept notes from podcasts, YouTube channels, and interesting tidbits from social media. While I’m very glad I did, there’s no way to organize or tag the information. My thought is to use our website to chronicle all the things and tag accordingly.
So today, January 1, 2026 has been a beautiful 60 degree day. We’ve had crazy weather swings over the last couple of weeks where just two days ago, our lows were in the 20’s. I see so many other homesteaders enduring much colder temps, but in Alabama, we don’t typically see sub 30’s for very long. The next ten days keeps us in the 60’s and even a couple of 70+ degree days. I plan to use as much time as I can find to work in the garden prepping for spring.
One of the things we learned last year in the garden is that weeds rule the world. My initial plan was to keep the ground as undisturbed as possible, a very newbie, naive plan! The weeds were everywhere and knee-high in places. I have no doubt the weed pressure contributed to some less than stellar results for some beds. Between now and when we plant out in the garden, I hope to have each bed covered in cardboard and will mulch each bed as I plant. This won’t be full-proof but it’s a step in a better direction.
It’s been a lovely, relaxing day outside. We bought a new chipper/shredder and have spent most of the afternoon chipping up limbs and small downed saplings. These chips will be used as pathways in the garden.
I picked collards and kale for our New Years day dinner and pulled peas from the freezer. The greens have been cooking all day and will be more than enough to eat on and then I’ll can the rest. Happy to have both greens and peas from our very own garden. It’s still bizarre to me that we’re doing this.
Project List (ever-changing and growing):
- Cardboard on garden beds
- Garden lay out
- Remove old cages and chicken coop wood from behind shop
- Plant sweet peas
- Plant bulbs
- Prune blueberries
- Continue chipping wood for pathways
- Decide on trellising for beds
- Sawmill completion
- Process vegetables in the freezer
- More chicken broth
- House projects (create separate list)
- Digitize 2025 Garden journal based on topic
- Seed inventory & order