Embracing Slow Living: Gardening in the Finnish Wilderness

Hi, sorry, you just got thrown right into the middle of spring gardening with no warning whatsoever, but that is how this year has been anyways. One day snow, the next everything needs to be planted pronto. Despite that, I felt a bit more ready and a bit less overwhelmed this year with all the planting and especially the food growing. Now first of all, I of course need to grow my own potatoes, which I do each year. They are the number one summer food, but this year I also wanted some sort of beans. So we got a bunch of different kinds and we decided to plant them in between the potato rows to give the potato plants some shade. I think I chose broad bean for this spot, but I might plant some other kinds as well. I would love to make some of my chicken feed myself this year, so beans could be a good option for that as well. I also planted a row of red onion for the first time this year. We also had a couple of rhododendron that we decided to plant where we took down the large spruces. The plan is to make this part of the garden sort of park-like with some pretty bushes and the birch forest in the background. We've also had this tradition at our summer cottage that every pet that passes on gets buried under a rhododendron, so I think this might be a very beautiful place for them to be laid to rest when the time comes. It literally felt like the snow had just melted, but then all of a sudden my lawn had grown super long and needed mowing. The battery in my lawnmower just needed to be changed first. Apparently it didn't appreciate to be left out in minus 30 degrees the entire winter. Whoops! Spring also means time to move the chickens out of the winter coop and into the summer coop, where they will be able to go outside in the beginning of June. I was pretty excited to get them out of the winter coop so I could let the dogs loose and the rats in there, but I think they have also moved out and scattered all over the yard at this point. Huh! We're missing one again. There she is! So the silkies are definitely notorious for not really being very good at getting up on the roost in the evenings. I've had to teach these as well, but they do learn eventually and as you can see, one of them has sort of learned already. It's not that big of a deal in the summertime when it's not super cold on the floor, but I am going to pick up the other one and put her here somewhere. I am breaking out on my chin. I have lost the ball on my septum ring sometime this past weekend and I have been putting off filming for this entire day, but I really think that I should do something about my porch. It needs a thorough clean up. It's a really nice porch in the summer, but every winter it becomes a mess because obviously it's cold so you're not out here, so stuff sort of gathers. I have some bird feed, I have some bird food in here just because I can't put it outside because of the rats, so I think I'm going to find a place for it in here. Floors need a clean up and then I'm going to bring some plants out and I also figure I would give a makeover to this thrift find that I don't think I have shown yet. I think it would just look more my aesthetic as black, so I happen to have spray paint so I'm going to do that. And speaking of thrift finds, I also want to show you another really cool thrift find. I found this thing that you're supposed to hang a hose or power cords on and I think it's absolutely perfect and yeah, I really wanted to show you. It's so cute! That's much better. Now this other side is a whole other story, but that is a project for another day. Thanks for watching, bye!