In the Gardens
-
The Flock at Sukkerfjell Apiary and Gardens
In 2021 we got our first twelve chicks to start our journey into chicken keeping. We knew that we wanted to get chickens when we moved here, but we felt like we needed to learn a lot before we went down that path. Our desire to have chickens was and is only for egg production, pest management, and entertainment. Before they arrived, we did lots of reading and research to try to prepare ourselves for for the adventure ahead of us, but we had no idea what was to come! We have learned so much, but feel like there is always so much more to learn. We picked up our…
-
Spring 2026 in the Kitchen Garden
Spring is here and the garden is slowly coming back to life. Early in March I started planting seeds in soil blocks and by early May the first of the seedlings were transplanted into the garden. This year spring came in with a bang, we had several very warm days in late April and early May. It did quickly get cold again though and we even had a little snow in early May. The warm days were perfect for getting out into the garden and getting the beds ready for planting. In the spring we have been using a broadfork in the beds to help loosen up any compacted soil…
-
Putting the Kitchen Garden to Bed for Winter
Winter is in full swing here and we have had snow on the ground since late October. Before all of the snow came we worked on putting the garden to bed. We refer to this time as putting the gardens to bed because we clean up and then cover the soil in the beds. We do not remove all of the spent plant material, some is left for various pollinators and insects to overwinter in and some is left for the birds to eat. Once the beds are cleaned up and ready we cover them with compost and used shavings from the chicken coop. The inputs from the chicken coop…