Starting our GARDEN: from DEVASTATED to PROMISING / Renovating a 110+ y.o. ABANDONED farm in Belgium

De Hoeve. Old Belgian farm renovation
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9 Video Views·Jun 25, 2023
Home of ladybugs.
Right now it's much easier to take all these tiles.
This is in-between state of this piece of land that is next to our house. It was full of nettles
and grass that were growing here for the last decades and nothing was done here. So it was
quite a challenge to get rid of them. But our neighbors and local farmers did us a huge favor
and helped us to plow this piece of land and now it looks perfect. And what is our plan for this?
Over there in that big piece we want to plant some fruit trees but it's probably already for
the next spring now it's mid-June a bit too late. Here Ilya wants to build a very long raised bed
but it's also a bit later when we will find time. Ilya with my mother and the kids they already
planted pumpkins. Four here and I think five here. Here's also a small one. And also they
planted sunflowers because we had seedlings of them ready to be planted. Everything was planted
a bit too late because we were very busy but let's see what we're gonna harvest this year.
And for the in-between, in between the trees and everything we're gonna plant wildflowers.
So it's gonna be a wildflower meadow. Wildflower meadow, yeah. We already bought the seeds to sow
them but there are still some things that needs to be done to prepare the land and namely to remove
these pieces of grass. You see how many we have laying around and we are ready.
Yeah we got seeds of different grass and flowers we want to put on our field. Yeah let's check.
So yeah this is a special mix to use it in fruit garden. It's called fruit carpet.
Carpet, yeah fruit carpet. Fruit carpet and also it's fine to mix it with flowers.
With a seed of different flowers it's Marina's choice. So we just mix them together
and here it's a little bit yeah it's just grass. It's nice to mix with these
seeds. I want just to add a little bit and also this is this nice flower. Cornflower. Cornflower.
So yeah I just yeah in this mix is also with cornflower but I want I like it and I want
it a little bit more. It has 19 sorts of seeds here and
here they do not mention how many sorts. So with this bag is enough 500 square meters and
with also for 500 square meters. So we just mix it and yeah just to be on safe side. You scared
loud voice. So okay let's let's put it. She's living her birth life as well.
Ah it's so nice. Dust shower. They also say that the weather forecast for the next
few days. Yeah from time to time it will be raining. So we want to to sow the seeds today.
And hope that it will be enough water to start it. But we will still need to give water to them.
Extra water. No? No. Maybe we're also a bit late in sowing the plants because it's mid-June. But
yeah we want to plant them right now. So and hope that they will out-compete
nettles. Yeah this is our ambitious plan for this year. Yeah for today and for this year.
True for today. Yeah and we hopefully we all can enjoy the flowers this year still. But
or next year. Most probably next year. But let's see. Let's see.
Yeah next time we should be more careful with our desires and what we wish for. There was no
rain in Belgium. At least in our region for the last three four weeks. And everything was dry.
But suddenly the sky opened up and it's pouring for the last 10 hours straight.
And pretty heavy rain I must say. But luckily as you see the water is not standing in the field
and everything is soaked into the ground. Our seeds will not flash away with water from the
field. And we are good here. My colleagues and friends were making joke with us that we didn't
pick the right moment to sow the seeds. And they were saying that we're gonna enjoy our
wildflower meadow from the weekend. So that it will be somewhere at the end of the village. But
nope. Not gonna happen. They will stay here. And I'm very happy that now they definitely had enough
water. And they will grow very fast. That's all for this week. And see you next week.
