One Man’s Favorite Spot Is Close To Home

Rico Reed hosted an Ice Cream Conference at his home in the Trentwood area. Asked to describe a “favorite spot” and tell how it has changed, he wrote the following.

My favorite spot in my yard is the gardern. When we first bought this property one and a half years ago, it was an overgrazed horse pasture with lots of weeds. I spread a lot of manure, planted fruit trees at the east end, raspberries on the south edge, then tilled the rest and planted a winter cover crop the first summer.

Early this spring I began planting the remaining 120 feet by 50 feet in vegetables. The result was much more produce than our family of four could eat.

Next year will yield far more as neither the raspberries nor asparagus produce the first year.

Throughout the year the garden has been lovely The kids have learned a lot about being self-reliant. I’ve continued to enrich the soil and a new winter cover crop is already growing on parts of the garden that were harvested early. We’ve utilized drip irrigation for all the trees and berries as well as some of the row crops and we’ve used only organic methods of pest control. In the back two acres I’ve planted 80 fruit and nut trees. My vision is for a small forest with a meadow and pond in the middle. xxxx