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This past summer my husband's niece and her boyfriend scored a job as garden builders and keepers for a saw mill in Montana. This family owned mill wanted to provide farm fresh food to it's employees on a regular basis. The kids are very earth oriented and this was something they dove headlong into. The lived on-site and this was their job everyday all day long.
It gets colder earlier and stays cold later into the spring in Montana, so they concocted ways to extend the season on both ends to accommodate a variety of more tender veggies.
This photo shows the saw mill in the background. The scale of this garden must have been enormous. If they do it next year I may have to go check it out myself. You know I am intrigued by huge gardens.
Here is my mother-in-law, Vonda, and Tracey harvesting something out in the garden. Huge garden to weed.
I had a few rows of beans that were only 10 feet long. I cannot imagine picking beans when you have rows this long. Yikes, what an undertaking.
The number of unique and standard crops was staggering. The kids said that many folks that received the bounty from the harvest didn't know what a lot of it was.
They had drip irrigation which made water conservation much easier. Jesse, Tracy's boyfriend, has done some large scale gardening in the past. These kids are only in their early twenties, it took me till my thirties to even have a grasp of some of the things they did this summer.
They obviously had a successful season. The garden grew with amazing results and I must say I am impressed. It's hard to impress me and they certainly did. If they do it again, I am going to see.
Heather- what a great opportunity for your niece and her boyfriend. You are right, that vegetable garden looked enormous and bountiful! I love the whole idea about raising food (chickens too) unfortunately for me, I am an urbanite living in suburbia.
ReplyDeleteAnother great blog post!
Wow, Heather! Not only am I impressed by the scale and scope of the kids' endeavor, but by the sawmill owners' forward-looking attitude. Way to go, all!!!
ReplyDeleteLooks fantastic!! WOW...
ReplyDeleteThat is pretty amazing. I bet it was a very rewarding job to have such great results.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ben--the mill owners and the gardeners give me hope for the future!
ReplyDeleteLucky kids to get that job. I know it was hard work, though. I would love to have about a ton of the rotted saw dust for my garden!
ReplyDeleteHeather,
ReplyDeleteThat is one monstrous garden. It looks healthy and a great way to live off the land. And get a sunburn weeding.
What great employers to want to provide for their workers. I am truly impressed with that - and with the great job the kids did in that huge garden. Tell them to keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteWhat an experience for them. Those are the kind of employers the world needs more of. Good for them. Imagine what they learned in just one season
ReplyDeleteI just finished reading your whole blog. It's almost midnight, but I just couldn't stop until I was done. I so enjoyed reading it! I love gardening, love it. We moved our horses this spring and my husband built a garden for me with raised beds. He kept telling me "We're not going to have enough beds." I told him he was crazy. Our garden was 38' by 38'. Guess what, we ran out of room. Some things didn't get planted. Our garden was also a big bust. I think it was like you said about the soil not holding the moisture. We live in So. Cal. and it's hot. There was a week in April that we hit 112-114 everyday! YUCK! June was absolutely beautiful. Overcast every morning then maybe 70. Once July got here the heat was back on. You live in Idaho! (BIG SIGH!) Our family went to Nampa last September for a horse show. It was beautiful, My husband said "I could live here". The chances of moving are slim, so I will have to read your blog and dream!
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautifully kept farm...impressive is right! Look at the size of those cabbage heads! I like that they not only grew edibles but flowers, too! Hopefully, they will continue to love this 'work' and be able to make money with it.
ReplyDeleteSo I was all excited about building some raised beds and planting a real garden next year, and then you go and post this! LOL
ReplyDeleteIt's incredible. I can't imagine how much they learned doing it. I hope the employees of the mining operation appreciated the bounty.
Toiling all day, all summer over a giant veggie garden . . . better them than me ;-) I'm sure the people who ate their produce really appreciated their work, though.
ReplyDeleteThat would be a neat adventure! I bet with all that sawdust they can put together some pretty good soil. I was thinking about all those beans and my back started to ache!
ReplyDeleteThat is one BIG A** garden ... I can't help but notice the row covers as I would love to be a better gardener and extend my growing season. Experiments in my future. By the way, you have been hammered with the Honest Scrap Award. See my blog post "Egads! ..." for details. Not sure if you've already been hammered with this. Please note that you are not obligated to participate and if you hate this sort of thing, I am truly sorry, but I do enjoy your blog.
ReplyDeleteThat is one very cool job! What a life!
ReplyDeletehey there Heather! I just saw that The Violet Fern tagged you too, not to double up, but once again you have officially been tagged with an Honest Scrap award :) your shout out is on tonight's post. i hadn't heard of this "award" before last night, but it seems like fun play.
ReplyDelete