The Walden Effect: Farming, simple living, permaculture, and invention.

A day of garden firsts

Mowing the garden aisles

Monday was a day of firsts for 2015. First pass of the lawn mower through the garden...

Strawberry flower

...first blooming strawberry (which would have been more photogenic if I'd snapped the shot before the lawn mower dusted the plant with grass clippings)...

Tomatoes in cold frame

...first day I trusted the long-range forecast enough to put our tomatoes and basil outside in the cold frame (you sure can tell the difference between the plants that were right up against the window and those who had to cope with less light inside)...

Asparagus and spring greens

...and the first delicious taste of homegrown asparagus (which we promptly roasted).

Grazing goats

Nursing goat kidThe garden excitement was punctuated by the sound of three tethered goats chomping as quickly as they could through the new greenery. Well, Artemesia tried to jump up in my wheelbarrow as I passed by, Lamb Chop did his level best to tangle everyone up in his lead, and Abigail stood guard against the terrifying sound of the lawn mower. But our herd did some grazing too.

Do you think Abigail will keep letting her son nurse if he grows taller than she is before he's two months old?



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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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I ate my first strawberry yesterday!! And don't talk to me about mowing lawns...
Comment by NaYan Tue Apr 14 09:15:44 2015

We're in zone 7, and we've got TONS of strawberry blossoms and a good number of little green strawberries right now.

I'm going to have to buy plant starts from the nursery this yr; my seedlings aren't growing b/c of lack of sun. I wasn't able to put them under lights indoors b/c we are in a tiny house until late this summer. Glad yours have grown so nicely!

Comment by Emily Tue Apr 14 21:01:09 2015





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