Hey Reader, Just a quick heads-up — we're going live tonight at 7:30 PM ET for Starting Your Summer Beds, and I wanted to make sure you saw this because we are so excited to show you how to plan your summer beds while also showing off our SAGE App's Crop Planner and Guild Builder! Here are a few sneak peak screenshots into how it (and this webinar) can help you select the plants that go into your summer beds) If you've been looking at your garden and thinking "I missed the window," you...
9 days ago • 1 min read
Hey, Reader!I finally planted the remaining potatoes this week! Rows of them, in what we in permaculture call Zone 1, the area closest to your home, the kitchen garden. And every time we put something in the ground in April, I think about the invisible work happening beneath the surface, the thing no one talks about at the garden center, the thing that determines whether your plants thrive or just survive. The life in the soil. Unbeknownst to me for many years, the life in the soil actually...
10 days ago • 1 min read
Hey Reader, This time of year, Bethany Farm is loud. A truck is dropping off mulch for our muddy paths. Dave is hauling fencing materials up the steep slope. The boys are catching the baby chickens who don't want to go back into their coop. I'm somewhere in the middle of double-digging a bed I've been trying to finish for two weeks, getting interrupted every twenty minutes by dinner, something wonderful or urgent Not so tidy in April but very much alive! And on May 16th and 17th, we're...
14 days ago • 1 min read
Hello Reader!Our garden beds are not done. I'll just say that up front. I had grand plans for this week: Double-digging the Zone 1 beds so I could finally get my edible flowers in the ground. And every single day, something intervened. Real life, doing what real life does. But here's what I did finish: I purged my home office. And I cleaned out the seed shop. If you've ever done a proper purge, you know it's not really about the stuff. It's about the clarity. It's a little bit like the...
16 days ago • 1 min read
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” — Matthew 11:28 March just flew by, Reader. How was it for you? Were you busy outdoors, hands in the soil, preparing for new beginnings? For me, March taught me a few things about both my soil and my soul. I want to share them with you this Holy Week. What the soil taught me This month, under the guidance of my garden Yoda (aka John Jeavons, author of Grow More Vegetables) I did something I never thought I’d do. I...
29 days ago • 2 min read
They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. Jeremiah 17:7-8 (on one who trusts and confides in the Lord) Trees dunked in mycorrhizal fungal water that will help roots grow Hello there, Reader! This week, 240 trees went into the ground at Bethany Farm. It happened because of a grant from ContourLines.org, an organization founded by Thomas Leonard, who believes deeply in something that is...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Dave and kids transplanted the seedlings into beds! We hope you are feeling the stirrings of spring right now, Reader. Right now for us, something small but important is happening. Seedlings are outgrowing their trays. It is one of the most exciting moments in gardening.The moment when a tiny plant says: I’m ready for more space. And this is where many gardeners pause. Do I move it now?Is it too early?Will I kill it? So here is the simple rule we follow on our farm. Transplant when the...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Seed Starting 101: How to Know What to Grow, When to Start, and What to Do When Things Go Wrong "The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how." — Mark 4:26-27 There is something quietly miraculous about seed starting. You press a small dry thing into the soil, you water it, you wait, and then one morning, something green is there that wasn't there before. For me, it never stops being...
2 months ago • 7 min read
Hey Reader, Tonight we’re opening the doors to our nursery. Not polished.Not staged.Just real seed trays, grow lights, and the behind-the-scenes work that prepares us for our Loudoun Spring Farm Tour in May. If you’ve been meaning to get your seeds started, this is your nudge. In Seed Starting 101, we’re walking through three simple but powerful ideas: 1. How to calculate how much you actually need to sowNo more guessing. 2. Seed starting strategies that reduce overwhelmWhen to start. How...
2 months ago • 1 min read