Her “No More Land” Gardening Solution

Those boys, proud of those guys. Got up early to do the chores this morning so that they could string trim the farm. That's what they want to do. Why did you want to get up early?

To do the chores and then start string trimming.

I know, but why? Because. Why did you want to get up early to string trim?

Make the place look good.

It's like y'all are guessing. Don't guess from your heart.

Uh, to make the farm look better. Okay, get chores done by 7 o'clock at least.

What about these boys, Beck?

I know, they're hard workers, hard-working boys.

What are your hopes and dreams for the day, honey? This Sunday seed day?

Um, well, I'm gonna hopefully mulch as much as I can because I only have a pile.

And then, um, this is with grass clippings. Yeah, our favorite.

Um, I'm just gonna be in the garden weeding and planting, transplanting some stuff. Yes, so I'm transplanting all the flowers that I have. I got some more of these planters that sit on the railing, and I'm gonna do that.

Good morning, ladies!

Hi, good morning, ladies! We moved them over the weekend and they're really loving their new spot. You digging? You digging? Because there's a walnut— or there's an oak tree. Oh look, Sausage has got her head stuck in the bucket. Was it not easy enough for you over there in a pan? I hope it's not stuck. Stuck. Okay, pulled that bucket off your head and you have a nice little surprise there. So this is where the piglets were. And now they're there. I think they did a splendid job. Beauty just threw down some seeds. She's throwing down some special pasture seed because we need to be more efficient with our land because we don't have quite enough for the amount of cows we have without importing hay. We're trying to make it more quality, so the pigs prep it for us and she casts out this high-quality seed, and they love it, don't they, Rebecca?

Yes, they do.

Supposed to rain tonight. That's actually a perfect time to— even if there's some grass seed in it, that's all right because that's what we're trying to do here.

Wow.

The boys have it looking good, Mom. All right, I'm gonna go milk. What you gonna do?

I'm going to, uh, go do the finishing milking as much as I can.

Okay. I see a teepee and the kids future, right?

Green bean teepee.

That's right, we've got— started the green beans.

Green beans, it's gonna be the wall.

It— he's helping. The green beans are gonna be the wall. Well, I'm going around digging holes and apparently— oh boy, there's a rock under this one.

There could be a big rock like that. I know, but I look—

I don't know what I'm gonna do if that is the case.

I just dug out a bunch of Morning glory right here.

Morning glory?

Not morning glory, honeysuckle. Honeysuckle. Have some left here. It ends up being pretty and it's good for the bees, but it just overtakes— it's going to take over your bean pole. So I pulled out this huge rock right there. You're going to fill it in with, uh, is that garden soil or is that potting soil?

Don't bury that.

It's some garden soil. Okay.

All right, good luck with your teepee.

Thanks.

I'm gonna go finish milking. That looks good, Mom. Thanks. You hopeful for it?

I think it'll do fine. Okay.

All right, Rebecca, what do you got us into this afternoon? Well, I loved the containers on the rail so much, but I got times 16.

Really? It's nice. It's upfront cost this year, but I'll be able to reuse these for years.

All right, we got our 16 planters planted. You want to plant them in the garage or up in place?

Um, let's plant them down here because then I don't have to carry all these trays.

Shady up there. Shady too. All right, all right, what else, Rebecca?

Um, what do you mean what else?

What else do I bring over?

Um, I'll go up there and get some of those. I need these two right here.

Okay.

Hey Rebecca, everybody's eager to help out in some way. Why don't you set the plants that you want in each planter and the kids will then plant them? Does that sound like a good idea?

I'm next to, blue's my favorite color. I like, blue's my favorite color.

That's a nice color. She's got one going for Jonah. This is the fun part, guys.

How many do I plant in each one?

What do you think, Mom? 4? Hey Gideon, you're spilling.

Yeah, try not to spill, baby.

Come on, she's gonna put plants in there. He wants to plant the yellow ones. Try right there, buddy. And that's a cucumber. That'll be interesting. You have to keep it on this side of the fence for the chickens. What's that?

Okay, so that's a strawflower. I don't know how— I don't know how it's gonna do.

Hopefully it's not the tall kind.

Yeah, because they can go 5 feet tall supposedly. See how I staggered that? That's how I want it.

Okay, she wants another space apple.

Yeah, there's some.

She'd be one in the greenhouse. That's exactly how she wants it planted.

Okay, so a hole here, a hole here. That's right.

Good job. You got to dig it a little deeper, Gideon.

I would say Papa already reached the bottom.

Okay, then scoot it over to the edge. This was the first time we used these biodegradable pots, and I was concerned that the roots wouldn't get through.

It's been no problem.

Oh my word, 16 of these containers filled! Rebecca's backing up Sally. We're gonna haul them up, put them on the railing. 5 planters in there. Jonah, can I trust you to carry one? It'll fit. It's made for 2x4s. We got the kids putting down mulch over the green beans. Mom put strings around the teepee for the beans to hang on to. Our idea is one container per block.

Now, are we doing it just around the chickens, or are we going to go down the line?

We're going to go down the line. I didn't count down the line, I counted around the chickens.

Okay, well then let's do every other one around the chickens.

Okay. Okay, that looks good, Beck. Every other one from the end, and then that way we can go down the road. That's starting to look good out there. I said, how are we gonna water these way out here? She said, yeah, when we sprinkle the Arun's garden, those will get watered. We got 8 more.

I was gonna be like, I think we have a lot, so maybe you can do one on everyone and go down the rail.

I'm gonna ride in the back and keep these on here. What was your inspiration here? Where'd you get this idea?

Um, I had just seen these out and I thought it would look pretty. We'll just see what it looks like. I mean, I didn't exactly— these are not exactly low-growing flowers, so we could have 5 feet tall flowers.

Look at this guy watering the beans. Good man. All right, it's kind of nice to get inside for a moment, cook a little supper. Our oven is jacked up right now. It's not going to be fixed until Tuesday. It's slow heating, weak. So I did this splay. I totally cut the spatchcock. Is that what it's called? Spatchcock. The overall-wearing permaculture chicken ninja master over there corrected me. And you just cut along one, one side of the backbone and splay it out like that, and it doesn't take as long to cook. An hour in a regular oven at 350. Instead of an hour and a half whole, but probably an hour and a half or 2 hours in a busted oven. But that can be cooking while we go check on the animals and do afternoon chores.

There's a pan in there.

See, monsters? Oh, I hear Rosie doing her job. She's hissing at me. Everybody seems happy to me. They seem happy to you.

They do. They're lively little boogers, and it's hot, and they're out and about.

They're out of water right here. Will you turn me off? Two waters, so we're in no danger, but might as well fill it up. Okay, Jonah set up this hose rig. What do you think it is, Rebecca?

I'm thinking that he must want to fill them both up at the same time.

I think, I think that might be it. So maybe I'll keep it. I brought one shutoff valve, but I guess I'll keep this jerriness. Look at this manure job though, Rebecca. We're gonna improve this pasture. Hey, Rebecca, you know you've tamed a sheep when— I know she won't let you deal with the mineral. You're pushing her away so you can get with it. Look, she's bothering you. She just keeps coming to you.

You do.

You're a good girl.

You'll be able to handle her lambs, won't you? Oh yeah, she'll let you. That's driving home from the chores, and look who we have here. Grandma, you coming to visit in your goose?

Yeah, she had a nice little bath.

Bringing her a bath. Oh, she loving that on this, what, 80-degree day?

Oh yeah, it's warm. But boy, there— those little chickies are so active.

Yeah, it's hard for us to Keep weight on them. Yeah, they're so active. Here she comes. There she goes. Look at this, 2 hours later, cooked that chicken perfect. It did take 2 hours for Rebecca, didn't it? We called it, we called it. So we just cooked this on the grill. Looks awesome.

The asparagus Zach must not know. He likes the deli though.