New Years Resolutions

Summer is a long way off for us here in the high desert. We are spending a lot of time in the mountains snowboarding and there isn't a lot to do in regards to gardening. While we spend time on the slopes we also think it's a good time to start planning our gardening goals for this year. Here are some of the main things we would like to accomplish this year.

Install drip system to the main garden area:

We have 2 years of gardening on our current property. We installed a small drip system in a root garden the first year but we have been using a hose and sprinklers to water our main garden. We want to reduce our water waste and our workload so a drip system is extremely important. We will start installing in March.

Build a cold frame:

The last few years we have built up our soil and improved our garden yield in the summer. Now it's time to extend the harvest into other seasons. We want to build a cold frame in February so we can start planting cold tolerant plants in March. I like the idea of building one with straw like the one below from Chicken Creek Journal.

Credit

Edible Landscape Flower Beds: The flower beds in front of our house need some work. We want to add compost to the soil and develop an edible landscape plan to plant flowers, herbs, and vegetables in the flower beds so they not only provide beauty, but also sustenance.

Goat Enclosure: We want to get milking goats this year. Our oldest child will be in charge of milking them and he thinks we are getting goats to make his life terrible. While this is partially true, we also want fresh milk and I have a secret dream of becoming a master cheese maker. We need to build a fence and an enclosure for the goats.

 

One good way to help make sure your goals are accomplished is to share them with others. Share your backyard farming goals with us in the comments below. I encourage you to try to do at least one thing this year that makes you more self sufficient, no matter how small.

 ~Michael~