Sal & His NEW, "Patchwork Quilt Farm" Business
has been very, very busy...
Last year in the spring of 2016 My Son Justin, Daughter Angela, Beverly and I has a discussion of starting a farm. We all concluded that this would be a great way to be sustainable at least for most of the year. The application was submitted, and this year this property officially became a Homestead Farm!
At my age, I am learning so much about Homestead Farming, especially on a quarter acre plot.
You may think that this is not a lot of space, but as I read up on small plot farming and how much production can be accomplished with Vertical Gardening. Vertical gardening eliminates the spread and sprawl of all climbing varieties. I put cages up (of a sort) for all vines to climb Vertical. This way I have much more space for other planting. I will start all my varieties from seed mostly from Bakers Creek Heirloom Seed Company. No G.M.O seeds (Genetically Modified Organisms-http://www.livescience.com/40895-gmo-facts.html), Heirloom seeds ONLY.
I am also planning on, what is called “Postage Stamp” Fruit tree plots.
This is the planting of fruit trees in blocks of 4 or 6 depending on available space. I am thinking of the 4 combination varieties.
I am working with the idea of Apple/ Peach, Plum, and Apricot/ Cherry/ Pear.
I am not sure what I will plant but there are dwarfed fruit trees with multiple grafted varieties also called “Combination” fruit trees or “Fruit Cocktail” trees.
The perfect solution for those with limited space, grafted fruit trees provide the convenience of two or more varieties growing on the same tree. These multi-grafted fruit trees are crafted by grafting the fruiting wood from at least two different varieties onto one root stock. Additionally, the varieties selected for these trees bloom at around the same time, so they pollinate one another. I am still hashing this over.
*I am leaning towards a Stone Fruit Tree variety-peach, plum and nectarine
* A Multiple Pear Variety * A Multiple Sweet Cherry Variety
* A Multiple Apple Variety * A Multiple Stone Fruit Variety
This way I can have multiple varieties and still have a postage stamp but with 12 varieties. I will be calling Cornell Agriculture extension to see what the chill hours are for these Trees.
And Best of all, the Garlic is planted, 3000 cloves, ready to grow and turn into our best crop ever!

Unfortunately this Fall we needed to pollard our 150 year old Willows again. This time we had a more aggressive removal of the branches to have it's height cut back. This radical cutting makes the tree attempt to live a longer life without having limbs drop to the ground during some of our storms with 40 to 60 mph wind gusts. These Willows will come back next year healthier and stronger. Our Arborist did say in 5 years we will most likely need to replace these wonderful Great Grandparents of Trees, so this spring we will be planting a few new Willows to replace this loss in the future.
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