New Year's Farm Goals

The quiet season continues. Today the chicken water was frozen, well, for the last 7 days or so really. Today the ground is solid, the leaves are brittle and full of crunch, and our hose is frozen under our fence, rendering it impossible to move and reminding us just how cold it is out there.  Last week the first seed catalog arrived though, and I studied up on new varieties of tomatoes, early green beans and lettuces galore. Next week the kitten gets spayed, and begins to fully undertake her permaculture role of Miss Huntress.

Though it's dark and frozen outside today, February is on the horizon. And with it the time for starting tomato seeds.  So the 2011 garden goals list is underway. Main goal: to protect the strawberries from the chickens and Stella Dog, so that we get more than 10 of them this year. From there the list look like this:
-plant a tree, or two, with Friends of Trees in early February in our parking strip--fruit trees
-start my tomatoes inside again this year, the third year of tomatoes from seed
-more potatoes!
-skip the peppers? maybe it was the crappy weather this summer but they were less than impressive and not worth the space they took up
-stagger lettuce planting more
-finish hardware cloth installation on the chicken coop
-rain barrels! in place before next fall
-a raised bed in the front yard? have to see what our trees do in terms of creating new shade before we commit to this

Phew. I think that's enough to get us started.