Our 2024 Garden Plans #zone7b | SDA Country Living

Join us as we plan and start our 2024 spring/summer garden.

Hey everyone my name is Ariel with the foraging family we love producing videos on farming foraging and faith in our creator We are family that lives on a 12 acre Homestead in the beautiful mountains of Alabama and we are document we are documenting our journey

To Country Living um so we right now are doing something so exciting we are planning out our 2024 Garden so we have a goal of trying to feed our family solely on the food we grow not completely but just trying to get there so my husband who’s the experienced farmer in

Horticulturalist um we are really trying to uh start our garden um well continue our garden if you’ve been on this journey with us thanks so much for joining us again if you’re new to our Channel welcome we are not experts but we love sharing and encouraging you all

Who might be wanting to move to an agrarian lifestyle or um learn more gardening tips alongside with us so my husband is organizing our seeds so let’s get into this video you ready babe ready let’s Go all right so we have our Ziploc bags our permanent markers and we ran out of rubber bands so we’re actually going to use my daughter’s um hair ties um but we use whatever works we’re going to go ahead and organize these and we’re going to go outside and really start jotting

Down where we want things and kind of do first things First just a quick tip um we wouldn’t put the direct seeds in these plastic container um plastic bags because of um mold and mildew that can occur but because they are in these bags already um we are going to put them here these are going

To be stored in a dark pool place um we actually use these uh plots these uh what are these what is this foam foam bins to place all of our seeds in um and then they have Tops on them and my husband put a w here

For winter um so these are all of our winter stuff that we’re placing here when we save our own seeds we put them in these little envelopes here we got these on Amazon for I think it was like $5 and it came with over 50 of these

Little bags and that’s what we use to save our own seeds um especially from our tomatoes and our squashes and our cucumber we saved our own seeds in that so yes having um paper um or envelopes is really a great way to save your seeds and then we’re placing them in here so

That they don’t get wet um just in case because of this foam thing but yeah that’s an option that other one on is pretty So once we finish um categorizing our seeds um uh we are going to head outside and really uh kind of put a visual to where we were going to plant everything um we did a lot of work outside but there’s still a lot of things that we

Needed just start planning out um so we’re going to take you with us with that uh we are located in zone 7B so our last frost date is to be safe April 1st so um yeah we really aren’t going to start seating until next month um right

Now it’s February late February so um but yeah this is the planning stages we have a lot of work to do a lot of prep so we’re going to take you along and show you how we’re going to do all that stuff all right let’s go

So here it stays pretty warm but we do have to get a new canvas and Poss possibly another a hard shell Greenhouse um because yeah this thing got kind of beaten up by storms so we definitely that’s one of the things on our list to do is to rec canvas our greenhouse and

We’re also going to purchase a hard shell Greenhouse so stay tuned for what we buy and how we’re going to build it but yeah so that is number one on our list on our plan for this Garden another thing that we have to do here on the

Farm is to protect what we’re going to start growing and we have a host of animals and pests that will get to our food the all that hard work we got to protect so so we have this fencing here uh that we’ve had for a while and so my

Idea is to use this tree as a post connected to that standing post there and then we’ll work on getting a swinging uh gate uh for between those two posts but this is the main area we have to this is the only area that is not currently fenced and it seems like

They’ll get like especially the deer they can just easily walk into our garden area which is they come from over here they come from over there and then they get into our garden area here so if we can it looks like there was a fence

Here at one some point in time long ago so we’re just going to go ahead and use that to cover our bases so irrigation irrigation yeah water what are we going to do about that uh one we’re going to consider drought resistant plants planting those here picking which ones will do well with

Minimal irrigation effort just for this year okay and then talk about these is right here so these are our water towers well not Towers but they store water for us um and my idea is that because this this land slopes actually towards the rear of the orchard we could use gravity

To potentially feed the uh a drip irrigation system there is a spider that just okay just like flew in the air oh my gosh part for the course oh they’re they’re kiting or something like that that’s what it is because I’m seeing all these silks around I’m not for this uhuh

Yeah that’s how they spread that’s disgusting they fly okay keep going right just when you thought it was safe to come outside all right so uh the idea is that we we put the tower here raise it on uh some stilts or on the platform here and then allow

Gravity to feed a drip irrigation system that runs the length of our Earth bed row ah because it slopes down that way right potentially we could get enough pressure to water water uh water this area so since we have three tanks you’re thinking one on each

Row right got it interesting now the the big thing is is collecting water for example if we had a hard shell Greenhouse that’s a lot of surface area that we could potentially uh utilize in order to harvest rain water and feed these three right in there yeah along

This line but um since we don’t it’ mostly be pumping well water into these allowing it to flow why don’t we want to pump uh just pump the well water directly it’s because it’s all the way over there MH and it’s a little it’s a little labor intensive and expensive to

Uh it’s probably about 400 500 ft oh yikes okay and we’d have to pipe it so those are our ideas uh if you have any suggestions let us know we’re always open yes we are cuz we need the help um about 80% of what we’re going to

Be growing is going to be transplants um and then other things are going to be direct sew so direct sew means we’re going right into the Earth bed Rose and direct sewing most likely corn um is what one of the things that we direct sew and sweet

Potatoes but a lot of the other stuff we’re going to transplant like our zucchini and tomatoes potatoes are going to be their EXO uh sweet potatoes we’re going to put the slips oh okay gotcha all right see he knows everything all right so he here is mixing you’re mixing the compost yeah

Right now this is a really good moisture level you want 40 to 60% moisture as moist as maybe a sponge a rung out sponge for your compost all right um second thing you want is to turn over regularly so you can get uh aerobic action happening so aerobic action means

That your bacteria those specific bacteria are using oxygen in order to help break down the products this is versus anerobic well the compost versus anerobic decomposition which some bacteria uh break down the product or this compost without oxygen you want aerobic and so with aerobic decomposition you’re going to get a lot

Of heat generated M and so that’s what I’m seeing cuz I’m seeing some steam and some uh some some composters will measure the temperature of their compost and maintain it at a certain temperature if the temperature starts dipping below or low they’ll know it’s time to turn it

Over um because it’s not getting enough oxygen and so there’s a science to it you want to layer your carbon Rich material with your nitrogen Rich material carbon Rich being uh dry material like this all right rich in uh carbon and your nitrogen Rich material would be your your vegetables your

Kicken straps uh your chicken manure and you layer it right Right so this is the this bin we add all our freshh compost and we turn it over and leave it to break down over months and as it breaks down we transfer we transfer the broken down material into our next stage bin to further break down and so you can see the difference

That has lots of uh whole organic pieces is this one we just covered it with some hay to protect it but it has a finer consistency a lot of the material is broken down you can see the rich dark soil beginning to form and so we’re going to leave this to break down

Further and then transfer it to our final bin we don’t have much here yeah that’s not quite it that’s just the bottom where that’ll be our our final product where it’ll break down finally into that fine crumbly dark material that you want for your garden homade Miracle Grow oril right here right

All right guys you want take this and we’re going to plant them over here very very small okay so daddy said two do is I scissor them in Take All right all Done wow so there white character and look at these carrots they look so pretty wa that’s so here’s what we’re going to do this is the earliest one you got to be very careful not to spill them okay here let’s start at this end every 2

In so you see those sticks that you have try to space them out cuz that is exactly 2 in all right and in front of the this line here of the bed we’re going to be planting uh lettuce and they’re great companion plants um we’re also going to be planting

Peas that will crawl up this uh trellis but it will also feed nitrogen into our soil all right no need to cover we’re going to just pinch everything close Over there mhm me Abby in the middle all right here I’m going to leave you a section no only in the channel only in the channel here jayen plant right Here about to see these Alaska Wilt resistant peev we’re going to put one p per hole about 6 in apart okay so let’s go ahead we’re going to put it right here by this trellis go ahead this looks good keep going oh I okay oh two per yeah one per one per

Hole space it out and keep going these P are big if I see so here we did carrots lettuce in between and then our Alaska peas that are going to go up this trellis here then we have some strawberries at the end over there now over here we’re going to put our

Snap peas against the trellis more carrots and lettuce in between feel free to do every two Ines okay all right kiddos we got some more piece here let’s go is it good mm yummy tastes like it has lots of protein protein all right all right let’s go plant these peas okay remember it’s

Going to be 3 in apart so stretch your finger out okay Okay oh dear so we put three seed in the same Oh I thought you said three seeds one seed three in apart I have to walk on the road I can’t go all the way down there yeah kind of you know while we’re out here gardening um the Lord brought a thought to my mind that I want to share with you if you read the story of Martha and Mary in Luke 10:

38-42 you see how Martha is really busy trying to cook and clean um for her guests that are coming to her home and one of the those guest is Jesus Mary takes a seat at Jesus’s feet while Martha is busy doing so many things things that are necessary but um when

She goes to Jesus and says Jesus don’t you care that my sister’s not helping me he tells her that what Mary is doing is the best thing what Mary is doing is um showing a devotional Spirit to the Savior and that really struck a chord with me because as we’re planning our

2024 Garden as we’re seeking to grow our own food and that takes a lot of work get so focused on making our pantries look amazing with all these canned foods and having so much food um to provide for our family for a year all of that is

Great but if we don’t have a devotional Spirit if we don’t have a deeper anxiety for the things that are Eternal then all of this homesteading stuff is in vain because honestly this stuff is temporal and it’s going to go away it’s not forever but what is forever and what is

Lasting is our our deep relationship with our Lord and savior so I just want you to remember that as you’re planning um don’t be anxious have a spirit that is devoted to learning more about the Lord with Meat it’s been a long day end of the day we’re ready to head back inside the house uh we did a lot of work today we did a lot of planning we’re off to a good start and um we’re just hoping for the best so yeah that’s our 2024 Garden

Plan we’re really not YouTubers that are pumping out things all the time uh our family is our first Ministry so if you see it it might be um every two weeks it might be once a month um so we just hope that the videos that we are pumping out

Are encouraging to you and uh yeah all right guys we are we’re heading inside for the rest of the day all right we’re done family that grows together stays together bye everybody o ooh the family that grows together grows together okay you done bye everybody