We are welcoming back spring at Johnstown Farm! Yea! I am always inspired by spring. It makes me want to take on new projects, especially in the realm of growing crops and gardens. Because of the blessing of much rain these past two months, we are seeing the farm come back from winter’s hibernation. It is so refreshing to see green everywhere, especially in light of the drought conditions last summer/fall.

Every year, we plant a “home garden.” This is supposed to be a small garden to supply the family with greens, right? Well, it always seems to get a bit unmanageable. This has been extra difficult since opening Grammy’s Pumpkin Patch. We weren’t willing to give up the home garden, but we needed to simplify.

Those of you who have been out to the farm and have met Angie, my sister, know that she is the creative dreamer behind much of the Grammy’s Pumpkin Patch and agricultural education for Johnstown Farm. She is always up for a new experiment.  Angie spent the winter months studying different gardening techniques.  Thus, this spring we are trying “square foot gardening.” The idea is to grow a garden in raised beds much more efficiently (effort and space). Well, once Angie dreams… here we go!

Grammy, Angie, the grandkids, and myself planned the garden with seeds and egg cartons.

We went to work measuring, cutting, and screwing together our raised beds.

A lot of Johnstown Farm soil, some gypsum (because our soil is heavy on the clay), and some compost (because we do not have a respectable compost pile yet-any suggestions?) and the beds were ready to mix. The beds were then gridded into 1 foot squares.

Looks great – the garden and the kids!  This was about three weeks ago. We are seeing sprouts and dreaming of a bumper crop. We did have to modify the beds by covering them with plastic mesh to keep those chickens out. Speaking of chickens- we still have a couple dozen eggs each week that aren’t spoken for yet, so if you are interested in farm fresh, free range eggs email us at grammyspumpkinpatch@hotmail.com