farmer-in-the-valley

How I'm Planning the Garden Different This Year

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 20:57:24 GMT

If you’ve ever planned a garden you know how quickly it can become overwhelming. It always starts with excitement and quickly turns into too many ideas and not enough direction. There are endless options for flower varieties and vegetables that can quickly get added to the cart because we want all of them. That is why this year for my planning, I have decided to work backwards. My past gardens have all kind of failed because I just started growing vegetables without a plan. We didn’t really end up eating them as a family, or we had too much of one thing at once.

Before ordering my flower and vegetables this year I answered two very important questions to get my planning started and these were it:

For my vegetable garden planning I asked myself:

Question #1: What does my family eat the most for vegetables throughout the year?

Asking myself what we actually eat in our house and planning my garden around this I already feel confident that we will take more care in weeding and tending to the garden because I have a plan and this will help our family save money throughout the year.

Question #2: Of those that we eat, if I grow them, how do I plan to use them at the end of the season? (freezing, canning, eating, etc.)

Asking this question made me realize what I wanted to do with our produce and will help me plan for the vegetables instead of just having way too many fresh vegetables counterside and ending up in the chicken/pig pen.

For example, I know my family eats a ton of spaghetti and red sauce based items with our two little girls. I want to have canned tomato sauces available in our pantry for us to grab from instead of having to buy expensive organic options from the store. Knowing this I want to plan to grow enough tomato varieties for fresh eating AND canning. This way I can set aside a week or two in the fall for canning my tomato sauces.

I love creating lists and a few columns that help me create my vegetable garden list and plan were having something like this:

Then I used that list to order my vegetable garden seeds.

For my trial cut flower farm planning I asked myself these questions:

Question #1: What are the items I want to grow to include in my bouquets?

Having to sit down and put together a list of the items I wanted in the end helped guide my flower shopping immensely. I actually found idea pictures of bouquets I liked, wrote detailed information on what to include in the bouquet (even specifics on the amount of focal flowers/varieties) and then created my list for focal flowers, fillers, and foliage based on the bouquets I want to sell. I applied this method to everything that I plan to sell at the farmers market or offer to my customers online. Including dried bouquets or flower art. This helped me get crystal clear on what to order and to grow for the season without the overwhelm of not knowing what to order. I also believe this will help me at the end of the season because I will have a very good idea of how to create my bouquets and create consistency.

-Where am I going to be selling these or what will I be doing with them during peak season?

Answering this question in the planning phase is going to help me stay focused on my efforts and to know that my work will be meaningful and useful in the end. And a great reminder of why I started this project or garden. For this year I am solely growing for trial and error, marketing efforts, and will maybe try to sell a few bouquets at one off markets, but for the most part will be donating and gifting the bouquets for marketing purposes for 2027. Answering this question helps give me direction and purpose; and next year will be an entirely different answer.

I love starting my planning with these questions because it makes me feel confident in opening up the giant seed catalog or online directory for flowers and not getting so overwhelmed. I also love starting the season answering these questions because it helps teach myself and my kids to garden and grow with intention. Growing vegetables that we will eat throughout the year and flowers that we plan to do projects with or make bouquets for friends and family with make them that much more meaningful.

We are growing with a purpose. And in a few months, we will be able to look back and see where those intentions paid off. Planning this way has also changed how I involve my kids in the process.

Ways that I include my toddler in the planning process of our garden:

-ask what their favorite foods are

-let them help look for those items in the catalogs

-sort and open the seed packets when they arrive

Since we live on our family's 6th farm, we love to talk about our ancestors that lived here before us and teach our kids that this land has been loved by everyone in our family. We use questions like this in our conversations to engage the thought process of the family farm and bring its history into our present day.

-What foods do we think our ancestors grew on this farm?

-Where did they plant their gardens?

-Where did they store their foods for the year?

-Who do we think tended to the garden the most?

-What did our current garden plot used to be? (Field, pig pen, cow pen)

The more I plan this way, the more I realize that gardening is not just about what we grow.

It is about how we think, how we prepare, and what we choose to pass down.

What are some tasks that you can try working backwards to plan and accomplish goals in your garden or cut flower farm?

Or if you live on a generational farm, how do you teach your children about your farm’s legacy during seasons like this?

Reviewing The Carrot Design Newspaper Pot Tool

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 20:12:00 GMT

In hopes of saving a few bucks this year starting my veggies and flowers for the garden, I purchased this newspaper pot maker. The design is extremely simple to use and I truly wasn't super sure how to use this or if it was going to work when I initially purchased it.

So before you buy or try one, let's break it down.

You take newspaper and cut strips of roughly 3.5x10 inches.

Using the top dowel part of the tool you wrap the paper around it and fold the paper at the bottom.

Then you press and spin the paper around the base of the tool.

This was also a fun project that my two year old helped with. I would wrap the paper on the dowel and she would help press and turn the bottom of it. She loved seeing the little pots come together.

It is such a simple and useful way to reuse newspaper and saving money on those costly plastic seed starting trays.

Overall I was very impressed with how well this little tool helped create these small pots. I'm super excited to start using these to seed start a few flowers and veggies. I will be sharing how well these hold up for our growing season this year.

I would recommend this little tool for anyone looking to make their gardening processes a little more sutainable. I also would recommend this as the perfect gift for any gardener in your life!

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Gardening With Kids: Slow, Messy, and Totally Worth It

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 20:00:10 GMT

Last year during this time, we were just getting settled into our home. I was pregnant with my second daughter and the move and pregnancy both had an impact on my very small and unplanned garden.

I had 5 raised beds and a few smaller container plants outside my house, and a lot of my veggies grew great, but became overgrown and untended as the summer came to an end.

This year, however, I am planning a large garden with veggies and flowers that I have thought long and hard about, ordered early and will be starting a majority of them from seeds.

I spent a lot of my post-maternity time researching plants, the best seed books, varieties and many lessons from Marth on what to do and what not to do.

Growing up I remember my grandma having an amazing garden and it was a tradition to stand out in the corn and take your picture during the Summer. “Knee high by the 4th of July” she would say.

While we are not big corn eaters in our household, I am still going to grow the obligatory plant as I can’t imagine not doing this tradition with my kids.

I fully expect there to be a decent amount of garden chaos come this spring and summer, along with a few dirty hands and feet, and a few dead or neglected rows of veggies, but gardening with kids is meant to be slow and messy.

And that’s okay. The beauty of gardening with children isn’t in perfectly straight rows or a flawless harvest; it’s in the lessons learned along the way. It’s in the joy of little hands playing in the dirt, laughing over mud-streaked knees, and the quiet moments of wonder when a seed finally sprouts.

Gardening with kids teaches patience.

It teaches observation.

And it reminds us that growth doesn’t happen on our schedule.

Sometimes a plant will bloom a week early, sometimes a row will fail entirely, but in both moments, there’s a lesson. Through gardening our kids can learn that mistakes are part of life, and we learn to slow down and enjoy the process instead of rushing toward the outcome.

This garden will be messy.

It will be loud, and it will be full of discoveries and disappointments.

But it will also be full of memories; memories of little hands helping to plant seeds, of stories shared over watering cans, of pride in a harvest no matter how small.

And in the end, that’s what makes it worth it.

Because in gardening AND motherhood, it’s not about perfection, it’s about presence. Being outside together, tending to life, and watching it grow, season by season, with our children.

So this spring, I’m ready to dig in again, embrace the chaos, and let my garden, and my kids, teach me what it truly means to grow slowly, messily, and beautifully.

Printable Bogg Bag Valentine's Day Card

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 05:04:44 GMT

Valentine's Day is right around the corner and I love nothing more than a creative card. With Bogg bags being on the trend this year and for the foreseeable future, there is not a store you can't walk into with out seeing an array of accessories and add ons to the hottest bag of Summer 2025. Especially these silicone charms. You can order a number of these charms to add to your bag off Amazon and other stores.

In my hunt for a printable or creative idea around giving these charms as a Valentine's Day card, I couldn't find any that were specific to a bogg bag or similar styled bag. I came across a number of Croc themed Valentine's cards, but nothing themed around the Bogg bags. I thought this would be an extremely fun Valentine's Day card for my daughter to give to her cousins, aunts and friends, so naturally as a graphic designer, I started creating one that we could use.

There are a number of bag charms you can order off Amazon. These were the two charm orders you see in the video and photos.

How to Use the Printable

Step 1: Download the printable Valentine's Day Cards.

Step 2: Print them off on a cardstick paper in color, or use a same day printing company (like Office Depot) and make sure you print off the number of copies you need.

Step 3: Cut out the printable cards and create a "T" shaped slip in the middle of the card on the bag graphic. This is where you will wiggle the bag charm into for the valentine gift.

Optional: Place them into a silicone bag to prevent them from getting lost or hand out as they are.

More Framing and Building the Second Floor

Tue, 06 Jan 2026 04:48:45 GMT

Framing continued with the addition of building out the second floors in the round bins.

The window frame for the kitchen area.

Framing the Grain Bin House

Tue, 06 Jan 2026 04:38:23 GMT

After the concrete dried and was cut, the framing began for the walls and rounds. We ordered all of our lumber from a local construction company and had it delivered with our roofing and siding as well.

Raising the walls of the framing with the help of family.

The dogs working hard on staying cool during construction.

The new septic system also was dug in during this time.

Where it All Started on the Farm

Tue, 23 Apr 2024 18:42:56 GMT

"Your crazy" were the exact words my now husband, said when I wanted to have our wedding on his 6th Generation Family Farm, in a poleshed, that was filled to the brim with decades of junk and farming machinery.

Now looking back 6 years ago to where it all started, I can't believe he listened to me and still wanted to marry me. We have worked extremely hard to get the farm to where it is at today and looking back makes me so happy that we didn't throw in the towel and give up.

Before we started cleaning up, this was where we intended to park the tiny home. Being a generational farm, there have always been multiple homes and families living on the property.

The old trailer was in a cow pasture, and the door was left open and cows got into the trailer one night and destroyed a lot of the trailer and items in it.

Foundations, Footings, and Finding the Bins

raychelkildahl@gmail.com (Raychel Kildahl) — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 16:04:30 GMT

It all started with a fun idea and dream, until we found a Craigslist post for two beautiful, identical bins for sale... and then it became a reality. We drove 3 hours to pick up the grain bins from a farmer who had them already taken down and sorted. It was super convenient, instead of having to disassemble one ourselves.

To prepare the site we had to get local permits, soil testing, sewer permits, and elevation permits. Once we got the documents, my husband dug out the ground for the frost footings. Instead of using a round form, we used one round of the grain bins as the base and form for the cement pouring.

Before concrete came, we had to decide where we wanted our plumbing, sinks, etc. This was the absolute hardest for me because I had to really think about the layout. Being such a visual design person, I had to really think about the layout for the time being and for future ideas. We also put in in ground heating so that had to be laid out prior to pouring concrete. I wanted to design the Grain Bin home with enough space to add on a garage and additional space later if we decided on it.

We did concrete as the base, and then did a colored concrete on the top layers as we decided to stamp our finished flooring to look like wood.

The finished concrete flooring (without the sealing coat on it). We are super excited with how it turned out!

From Coop to Tractor - We Saw a Difference in Our Eggs in Just 3 Days!

raychelkildahl@gmail.com (Raychel Kildahl) — Tue, 16 Apr 2024 17:52:09 GMT

Initially, my chickens were confined to a static coop and run, dependent mostly on store-bought grain for nourishment. After our last horrific episode with a pack of wild raccoons ravaging through our coop and taking out half of our precious layers, I was determined to keep them safe. So to the confined barn they went.

After doing some research and finding the incredible difference that the environment has on the actual food outcome of not just chickens, but every animal we raise for food, I decided it was time to change it up.

We moved our chickens from the coop to a chicken tractor, and I was shocked by how quickly it changed the quality of the egg. Like noticeable visual difference (see the video here).

A chicken tractor is a movable coop that allows chickens to graze on fresh grass, peck at the soil, and enjoy a more natural environment. So many great plans are available for purchasing and building your own, but we decided to create our own version made of PVC pipe, netting, and wood.

I have kept a few of the eggs from when the chickens were in the coop, and I will do another update and comparison after a few more days—I can't wait to see if I continue to see results and changes!

Regardless, I am super happy with how the new tractor turned out and with the quality and health of the chickens, which reflects directly on what we are eating.